Global Experts to Convene at VERGE 2024 on the Urgency of Tackling Climate Super Pollutants

The Global Heat Reduction Initiative (GHR) will host a panel of top climate scientists and entrepreneurs speaking out on the growing importance of reducing aggressive climate super pollutants including methane, black carbon, tropospheric ozone, and HFCs that are responsible for nearly half of all global warming. The panel will take place on opening day of the prestigious VERGE climate conference put on by the Trellis Group (formerly GreenBiz).  

Verge 2024: Deploying Climate Tech at Scale

Session: Tackling Super Pollutants on the Path to Net Zero

Tuesday, October 29, 3:15-4:15 p.m.

McEnery Convention Center, San Jose, CA, Meeting Room 211B-D 

“To prevent global temperatures from permanently exceeding dangerous thresholds, we must start slashing super pollutants rapidly and at scale,” said GHR Executive Director Kiff Gallagher. “These emissions can be hundreds or thousands of times stronger than CO2, but they also dissipate from the atmosphere fast. Stopping these emissions at the source gives us an enormous opportunity to slow down global warming within years instead of decades.”

Gallagher will be joined on the panel by the following experts:

• Phil Duffy, PhD, Chief Scientist at Spark Climate Solutions, a science-driven non-profit aiming to accelerate progress on emerging, high impact climate fields. Dr. Duffy has served two stints in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, under Presidents Biden and Obama, where he helped drive climate agenda. He has also led the Woodwell Climate Research Center (formerly the Woods Hole Research Center) and served as a Senior Scientist and Deputy Division Leader at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.  
• Mark Z. Jacobsen, PhD, Director of the Atmosphere and Energy Program and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. Dr. Jacobson is a Senior Fellow of the Woods Institute for the Environment and the Precourt Institute for Energy. An expert on climate, energy and air pollution, he has authored more than 185 scientific articles and six books, including his latest, “No Miracles Needed: How Today's Technology Can Save Our Climate and Clean Our Air.”    
• Ning Jeng, co-founder of Recoolit, a climate tech startup focused on reducing powerful refrigerant emissions through lifecycle management and technical assistance, especially in the Global South. Mr. Jeng also serves on the UN Montreal Protocol’s TEAP Taskforce for Lifecycle Refrigerant Management. Previously, he was an engineer on Apple’s iPhone team, and led international forestry projects at Terraformation, the forest restoration company founded by former Reddit CEO Yishan Wong.  

The panel will be moderated by Jennifer Norfolk, GHR Senior Director for Partnership Development.  

GHR was launched by Emeryville-based SCS Global Services, a pioneer and global leader in sustainability standards and certification for four decades. GHR helps private business, government entities, and other organizations accelerate their climate efforts to mitigate climate super pollutants as well as other drivers of climate change such as loss of surface reflectivity. Learn more at www.heatreduction.com. 

Media Contact 

Tom Vandyck 

Public Affairs Manager, Global Heat Reduction Initiative 

[email protected]