Dear HPAC Colleagues:
I’m pleased to announce that on Thursday,
March 5, 2026
at 4:30 PM EST (so one hour earlier than our normal starting
time) we will
have an HPAC presentation by two experts on atmospheric methane
from Spark
Climate Solutions (https://www.sparkclimate.org).
Spark Climate Solutions sponsors a research portfolio
considering, among other
things, the potential viability of reducing methane’s
atmospheric lifetime as a
means of reducing its radiative forcing. Our speakers will be
Dr. Megan Melamed
and Dr. Katrine Gorham, who together will present a talk titled
“Atmospheric
Methane Removal: Exploring the Viability of a Hypothesized
Open-System Climate
Intervention.” An abstract of the talk and their bios are
included below. After
the talk, there will be time for questions and discussion.
We look forward to seeing you there: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88954851189?pwd=2OEdvleb4UpYfK4a950ryohFWcw93F.1
(passcode 662519).
Best Regards, Mike MacCracken for HPAC
Abstract:
Methane emissions have contributed to roughly
30% (0.5˚C) of
current global warming since preindustrial times, second only to
carbon
dioxide. Even with aggressive emissions reduction strategies,
atmospheric
methane concentrations are expected to remain high due to
hard-to-abate
sources, including warming-induced emissions from permafrost
thaw and warming
of tropical wetlands. While cutting emissions is essential,
existing mitigation
tools may not be enough to manage climate risk.
Methane removal has emerged as a potential
climate strategy
to help reduce climate risk. But the field is in its early
stages and needs
foundational research, coordination, and rapid efforts to
rigorously assess
different potential methane removal pathways. It is a complex
topic with many
scientific, social, legal, and governance dimensions that are
not well
understood, along with moral and ethical considerations specific
to open-system
interventions. This presentation introduces Spark Climate
Solutions' Methane
Removal Program and its support of foundational research to
understand which
methane removal approaches—if any—may be climate beneficial,
socially
acceptable, and cost-plausible with a pathway to scale.
Bios
Megan Melamed, PhD, Methane Removal
Program Lead
Megan leads Spark’s methane removal program,
leveraging her
expertise as an atmospheric scientist and strategic leader to
accelerate the
assessment of the viability of methane removal to inform the
climate solutions
portfolio. Before joining Spark, Megan served as Deputy Director
of NOAA’s
Chemical Sciences Laboratory, and earlier in her career she was
Executive
Director of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry
(IGAC) Project. She
also served as an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow at
the U.S. EPA
and as an NSF International Research Fellow in Mexico City.
Megan studied environmental
engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder (PhD ’06).
Katrine Gorham, PhD, Methane Removal
Program Manager
Katrine leads the methane removal research
funding program
and scientific roadmapping at Spark. Her work focuses on
engaging with the
scientific community to support the development and growth of a
robust research
ecosystem for the emerging field of methane removal. Prior to
Spark, Katrine
led scientific programs and operations, most recently for the
NSF Office of
Polar Programs Arctic Research Support and Logistics contract,
as well as for
the NSF National Ecological Observatory Network and the UC Davis
Air Quality
Research Center. Katrine studied atmospheric chemistry at the
University of California
Irvine (PhD ’09).
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Healthy Planet Action Coalition (HPAC)" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to
[email protected].
To view this discussion visit
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/healthy-planet-action-coalition/ad3168a6-96fd-4ab0-b4bb-47c2fde19649%40comcast.net.
