A conversation with Dr Gianpaolo Balsamo, Director, Global Greenhouse Watch, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on monitoring methane emissions, and the sustainability roadmap ahead.
2023 was the hottest year in recorded history. Increasing global warming and intensifying pollution are triggering environmental degradation, adversely affecting people’s habitats, and initiating a chain reaction of instability and crisis. How can Global Green House Watch insights help vulnerable communities residing in climate risk zones?
The Paris Agreement provides a framework for Climate Action to reduce the atmospheric concentrations of the Greenhouse Gases responsible for Climate Change.
The Global Greenhouse Gas Watch, or G3W in short, will coordinate global effort for measuring progress in abating emissions and reducing concentration for Carbon Dioxide, Methane, and Nitrous Oxide, the top three gases responsible for global warming and associated impacts that manifest in extreme weather.
We cannot manage what we don’t measure and therefore our first priority is to foster a coordinated Global Observation Network of surface and space-based sensors to measure the Greenhouse Gases, or GHGs accurately.
Greenhouse gas emissions, particularly methane, are responsible for most global warming. With the help of satellites, we now have near real-time data of hotspots globally. What can governments and citizen collectives do to translate this info into concrete action?
Methane, or CH4 to use its chemical formula, is the second most abundant GHG after Carbon Dioxide, or CO2. While Nitrous Oxide, or N2O is less abundant but is a very potent Greenhouse Gas. Abating Methane is very important as it is part of the IPCC Carbon budget calculations involved in the Paris Agreement.
COP28 has reached a consensus on the transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly, and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade to achieve net zero by 2050. It is important to reduce CO2, CH4, and N2O concentrations with a plan to phase out fossil fuel combustion.
The priority and speed of GHG reduction need to follow scientific guidelines and convert them into effective policy. The role of G3W will be to provide observational support to the National Climate Change mitigation efforts until the goal of climate neutrality is achieved in 2050.
Therefore, our plans and vision extend over the next three decades and are in alignment with the Paris Agreement Enhanced Transparency Framework. There are virtuous behaviors that each and everyone can adopt to reduce emissions.
Climate Change has become a keystone at all leading global summits and conclaves. It is at the core of policy discourse in most countries. Yet the progress on achieving the Paris Agreement goals is still not up to the mark. What do you think needs to be done to put it on track?
The nationally determined contributions collect efforts and ambitions to abate Greenhouse Gases, but to be effective they need a system that can reliably measure the effectiveness of the deployed Climate change solutions. As any doctor or manager will tell you, to manage there’s a need to measure.
This is true for complex systems such as the human body and it is equally true for the planet’s climate where we need to accurately measure the concentrations and emissions of Greenhouse Gases, the primary cause of Climate Change.
In the Paris Agreement, the Global Stocktake represents this assessment step. The G3W infrastructure will empower the Global Stocktake to be based on the best science practices and technology such as Earth Observations.
This would also include satellites and surface-based measurements optimally combined using Earth System Models and feeding into information products for decision-making informed by science.
Tell us about the new Global Greenhouse Watch Draft implementation plan?
The G3W-IP is a detailed action plan drafted by 35 world-renowned GHG experts who have engaged several more experts organized in drafting teams. As Director of the G3W, I have coordinated the plan consolidation into a document via an open revision process that engaged a thousand experts.
The G3W IP is now published as an official document that is going to be presented to the 193 Nations of the World Meteorological Organisation for further discussion and endorsement by the WMO Executive Council. The Implementation Plan covers in detail the steps in the next 4-years and projects the vision thereafter.
This is now an official document that will be evaluated discussed and ultimately endorsed by the intergovernmental bodies of the WMO. The proper action plan of the future will continue to be a science-driven plan, as the Earth system responds to the law of physics, and the planet temperature must be stabilized for life to continue to prosper. It is not feasible to negotiate with physics, we have to work with it.
