The Montreal Protocol regulates chemicals responsible for depleting the ozone layer, many of which are also potent greenhouse gases. In this seminar, Megan Lickley, assistant professor at Georgetown University, will discuss the scientific challenges of tracking whether countries are meeting their commitments under the Montreal Protocol.  

Many of the chemicals covered by the treaty continue to leak into the atmosphere from older equipment like air conditioners, fire extinguishers and foam products long after their production has stopped. Presenting a statistical modeling approach that draws on a wide range of emission data sources, Lickley will examine why it is difficult to determine whether these ongoing emissions come from aging equipment or from new, unauthorized production. She will close with a discussion of what it would take to better track global progress on phasing down these substances. 

Speaker bio:
Dr. Megan Lickley is an Assistant Professor at Georgetown in The Earth Commons and the Science, Technology, and International Affairs Program. She received her PhD in atmospheric science from MIT in 2020. Her research uses Bayesian methods to combine deterministic models with observations to target climate policy at multiple scales, from multilateral environmental agreements to local infrastructure planning. She is a co-author on the Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion (2022, 2026). She is now leading the Extended Global Flask Monitoring Network to track progress on the Kigali Amendment’s HFC phase down schedule.