Webinar Series on Urban Greenhouse Gas Monitoring - CO2, CH4, N2O and halocarbons in a developing Western Africa megacity

Webinar date: 20/7/2026
Webinar time: 15:00-16:30 CEST
Speaker: Adebola Odu-Onikosi

Speaker bio: Adebola Odu-Onikosi is a Principal Environmental Scientist at EnvironQuest. He brings over two decades of practice in air quality, source apportionment, and exposure assessment, combined with doctoral research at Clarkson University (advisor: Philip K. Hopke) characterizing ambient PM2.5, VOCs, and greenhouse gases in the Lagos metropolis. His work is based on a year-long, six-site monitoring campaign and has produced peer-reviewed studies in Urban Climate and Environmental Research on the spatial and seasonal behavior of urban pollutants, including the greenhouse gas and halocarbon findings presented in this webinar.

Overview of the topic: This webinar presents a detailed assessment of ambient greenhouse gas concentrations across Lagos, a rapidly developing West African megacity with over 20 million people. Drawing on a year-long campaign (August 2020 to July 2021) at multiples sites spanning industrial, commercial, residential, and coastal land uses, it characterizes the spatial and seasonal variability of CO2, CH4, N2O, and a suite of halocarbons (CFCs, HCFCs, and HFCs) measured by canister sampling and GC-MS. A central finding is a contrast in seasonality: halocarbons peak during the dry season, driven by refrigeration and air-conditioning demand and informal e-waste recycling, while CO2, CH4, and N2O are elevated in the wet season, reflecting vehicular emissions, generator use, and enhanced waste decomposition in waterlogged dumpsites. The talk identifies transportation, waste management, and refrigeration as the dominant source sectors, highlights industrial hotspots such as Ikorodu, and considers what these patterns imply for GHG monitoring strategies and mitigation policies in data-sparse, high-emission African cities under the Montreal Protocol and the Kigali Amendment.