Challenges and opportunities in the redevelopment of a Greenhouse Gas Inventory for the United States ft. Kenna Rewcastle and Lindsay Barbieri

GundxChange

In these weekly talks, hosted by the Gund Institute for Environment, scholars and leaders exchange ("xChange") new research and solutions for people and planet.

This week, after more than three decades of meeting annual U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change reporting commitments, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency did not publish a national greenhouse gas inventory in April 2025. The resulting data gap extends beyond international reporting: states rely on consistent, transparent emissions data to track progress, develop policy, and identify mitigation opportunities. In response, University of Maryland researchers published a non-governmental national Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Analysis (GHGIA) in April 2026 and have since released state-level estimates and companion calculation tools. This presentation explores the challenges of rebuilding the inventory system while preserving the integrity and rigor of its estimates, alongside opportunities to make emissions data more transparent, accessible, and useful for climate policy. Ultimately, this is a story about preserving a critical climate data resource while using disruption to rethink whom greenhouse gas inventories serve and what they can enable.

About the speakers:

Kenna Rewcastle is a soil scientist and greenhouse gas inventory specialist who co-leads agriculture and land sector emissions compilation for the GHG Inventory and Analysis program at the University of Maryland's Center for Global Sustainability. Previously at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, she supported compilation of these estimates for the U.S. National GHG Inventory, led international greenhouse gas inventory capacity-building efforts under the Paris Agreement Transparency Accelerator, and provided technical assistance to EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grant recipients in the development of state, local, and tribal government climate action plans and emissions monitoring systems. She holds a PhD from the University of Vermont Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources.

Lindsay “Bar” Barbieri is an Assistant Research Professor at the University of Maryland and the Science-Policy Lead for the Global Land Programme. She works at the interface of land, society, and environment, contributing to research, policy, and program implementation across a diverse range of projects. She is particularly interested in research that connects rigorous, community-responsive science with societal benefit, from tracing nutrient flows through terrestrial systems to supporting and evaluating initiatives that foster ecosystem flourishing. Previously, she served as a senior geospatial analyst with the U.S. Agency for International Development. She holds a PhD in Natural Resources, with a certificate in Ecological Economics, from the University of Vermont as a Graduate Fellow in the Gund Institute for Environment.