Italian engineer Manfredi Caltagirone leaves behind a powerful legacy in the global fight against methane emissions. His vision began under a tree at the UNEP campus in Nairobi in 2019, where he and two colleagues imagined a new framework that could rapidly cut methane emissions by 2030. That idea grew into the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 and the International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO), launched with support from governments, scientists, and industry leaders.
Until his passing at age 46, Caltagirone dedicated his career to harnessing the world’s most effective short-term climate solution: reducing methane, a gas that warms the planet far faster than carbon dioxide. Under his leadership, IMEO transformed global methane action by pushing companies to measure real emissions instead of estimates, improving transparency, and ensuring leaks could be fixed quickly on the ground. His work inspired major programmes such as the Methane Alert and Response System, new scientific studies, and partnerships across oil, gas, steel, waste, livestock, and rice sectors.
