O2 Seminar - 11 February 2026 / 6.02.2026

You are kindly invited to attend the next O2 Seminar, where we will explore how atmospheric measurements can support and verify national climate commitments. In this seminar, Dr Dafina Kikaj from the UK’s National Physical Laboratory will present insights from the UK GHG monitoring network, illustrating how robust, well-designed observation systems can move climate policy from pledges to evidence-based assessment.

You are kindly invited to join us on Wednesday, 11 February 2026, at 13:00 (CET) in the O2 Lecture Room.

Title:
From Climate Pledges to Evidence: Lessons from the UK GHG Network

Speaker:
Dr Dafina Kikaj
Senior Scientist, National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Teddington, UK
(former PhD student at the Department of Environmental Sciences)

Abstract:
Climate change is a global issue, and national mitigation targets increasingly need independent evidence that emissions are changing. Atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) measurements provide an independent check on inventory-based reporting, but only if networks are designed and operated for verification rather than monitoring alone. The UK provides a practical example of this shift. A tall-tower centred network, supported by other sites, delivers continuous, high-frequency time series of CO₂, CH₄, N₂O and related tracers. To be usable for verification, these data require traceable calibration, long-term stability, consistent quality control, and supporting meteorology and metadata. When combined with atmospheric transport modelling and inverse methods, the network can constrain national and regional emissions and quantify uncertainty. The main remaining challenges are background conditions and transport errors, which limit how small an emission change can be detected and how confidently atmospheric estimates can be compared with inventories.

Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/94990507554?pwd=CAwqS3azlDigfqwpwGu3hTuGDlLHBD.1