Dr.

Chisa UMEMIYA

Chisa leads research projects that support developing countries to implement climate actions in the context of sustainable development. This includes assessing the international framework on support for developing countries, monitoring capacity building actions and evaluating technical assistance projects implemented by donor agencies. The most recent work includes ‘Analysis of the Global Database of National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Capacity in Developing Countries’ aimed to inform the future planning of the Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency under the UNFCCC through evidence-based research.  

Trained as a forest scientist, she also conducts research in the land use and land-use change (LULUCF) sector, which is one of the major emissions sources for developing countries.  This includes “Assessment of Soil Carbon Stock Changes due to Land Use Changes” and “Assessment of Capacity Building for Implementing REDD-plus (reducing emissions from deforestation and other forest activities) in Thailand”. She is also certified as an expert for the technical assessment of forest reference emissions levels for REDD-plus under the UNFCCC.

She has worked with international collaborations in Asia in capacity building for the enhanced transparency under the Paris Agreement. Other than leading the organization of regional knowledge-sharing workshops on the enhanced transparency since 2017, she plans and implements mutual learning programs between Asian countries on the preparation of biennial transparency reports in the Paris Agreement.

Before joining IGES, she was a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) fellow, working as an exchange researcher at Kasetsart University's Faculty of Forestry in Thailand. She also worked for the Greenhouse Gas Inventory Office (GIO) of the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Tsukuba. She received her Ph.D. from Waseda University in Tokyo (Doctor of Human Science). She has served as a part-time lecturer at several universities in Japan.