#  Science, Policy, and Law Meet at Harvard’s Methane Workshop in São Paulo 

 





December 15, 2025

 

 

   ![group](/sites/g/files/omnuum12451/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/2025-12/Captura%20de%20tela%202025-12-15%20171704.png?itok=2lwpWfhi) 

 

Harvard University brought together leading scientists, policymakers, and legal experts in São Paulo on December 3, 2025 for a concentrated workshop on one of the most powerful levers for slowing global warming: methane. Over a single morning, the event hosted at [Insper](https://www.insper.edu.br/pt/home) by the [Harvard Initiative on Reducing Global Methane Emissions](https://salatainstitute.harvard.edu/research-initiatives/reducing-global-methane-emissions/) and co-sponsored by the [Harvard DRCLAS Brazil Office](https://www.drclas.harvard.edu/brazil) moved from cutting-edge satellite detection to Brazil’s policy and regulatory challenges, highlighting why methane is rapidly rising on the global agenda.

Setting the tone for the day, Professor Robert Stavins opened the session by outlining the Harvard Initiative, supported by the [Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability](https://salatainstitute.harvard.edu/), and the scientific case for prioritizing methane now. Though less visible than CO₂, methane is responsible for nearly 30% of global warming since the beginning of the industrial era and has an outsized short-term impact. Stavins emphasized the Initiative’s commitment to pairing research with real-world applications, including the [Integrated Methane Inversion](https://carboninversion.com/) (IMI), a tool developed by Professor Daniel Jacob and his team that uses satellite data to produce emissions estimates that governments and industry can act on.

   ![professor](/sites/g/files/omnuum12451/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-12/Captura%20de%20tela%202025-12-15%20171623.png?itok=dBCWU4o7) 

 

Building on that foundation, Professor Jacob demonstrated how advances in satellite technology are transforming methane monitoring and giving initiatives like IMI unprecedented precision. Instruments like [TROPOMI](https://www.tropomi.eu/)—the European Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument—and [GOSAT](https://www.gosat.nies.go.jp/en/), Japan’s Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite, provide broad regional maps of methane, while high-resolution imagers like [GHGSat](https://www.ghgsat.com/en/), a commercial satellite system capable of detecting facility-level leaks, can zoom in to identify major point sources with meter-scale detail. Jacob’s examples—from the Permian Basin to major landfills in Buenos Aires and São Paulo—showed how satellites reveal emissions that traditional inventories routinely miss or underestimate.

   ![sarah](/sites/g/files/omnuum12451/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-12/Captura%20de%20tela%202025-12-15%20171655.png?itok=_R7RF23V) 

 

The focus then shifted to the region hosting the workshop. Doctoral researcher Sarah Hancock highlighted how [South America is both a methane hotspot and an underrepresented area in top-down scientific studies](https://salatainstitute.harvard.edu/research-brief-satellite-quantification-of-methane-emissions-from-south-american-countries/). Her work demonstrates that national inventories across the region, especially in Brazil, systematically underestimate emissions, particularly from livestock. By integrating satellite data with local information—such as cattle records, wetland maps, and mining profiles—Hancock showed how countries can strengthen their methane reporting and design more precise mitigation strategies.

   ![jacob](/sites/g/files/omnuum12451/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-12/Captura%20de%20tela%202025-12-15%20171909.png?itok=4H3HqUu7) 

 

With the scientific landscape established, the workshop moved into a broader discussion of implications for governance. In the roundtable that followed, Danilo Perecin, Energy Director at the São Paulo State Secretariat for Environment, Infrastructure and Logistics, stressed the importance of accurate methane data for shaping state energy transition policies. Alessandro Sanchez Pereira, founder and Executive Director of Instituto 17 – an environmental NGO – and a contributor to the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, added that Brazil’s experience with sustainable energy, zero-emission mobility, and climate-policy innovation offers valuable guidance for other developing countries. Drawing on his background in international cooperation and carbon markets, he emphasized the global relevance of Brazil’s methane challenge—and its potential leadership.

Bringing the discussion back to scientific nuance, atmospheric scientist and University of São Paulo professor Luciana Rizzo explained how methane interacts with both natural ecosystems and urban environments, influencing air quality, ozone formation, and climate dynamics. Legal expert Natascha Trennepohl, the final speaker before the open discussion, offered an overview of Brazil’s emerging methane regulatory framework. She highlighted recent progress in carbon market design while underscoring the ongoing need for clearer rules, stronger enforcement mechanisms, and better integration across different levels of environmental governance.

By the end of the workshop, the message was unmistakable: methane is no longer a secondary climate issue. With rapidly improving monitoring tools and growing international momentum, countries like Brazil now have both the data and the opportunity to act. The São Paulo discussions showed how science, policy, and law can converge—and why methane may become one of the most decisive climate battlegrounds of the coming decade.



 

 

 



 

 

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