The carbon counters: tracking emissions in a post-Paris world

As the Paris climate deal requires developing countries to monitor their emissions, organisations are using online courses to train a new breed of green accountants capable of the complex task, reports Environment 360

Michael Gillenwater is so tired he is mixing up his words, worn out from weeks of conference calls with the United Nations, the German government, and more. "I'm exhausted," he says. In the wake of the Paris climate agreement last December, everyone wants advice from the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute (GHGMI) - Gillenwater's non-profit organization based in Washington, DC - on how to step up the developing world's capacity for counting carbon.

The institute offers online courses in greenhouse gas monitoring to practitioners around the globe, and since the Paris agreement was reached, business has been brisk. "We're excited," he says. "There's a window here to make something permanent happen."