Who we are – Carbon Limits

Who we are

Carbon Limits was formally established in June 2005, but its origins date back to the early 1990’s. The company grew out of the energy and carbon services of ECON (now Poyry Norge), a leading Scandinavian consultancy. With projects in more than 20 countries, Carbon Limits has garnered an extensive experience in the identification and development of emission reduction opportunities in traditional energy sectors, but also in capacity building and policy advice. Our geographical focus includes Africa, Russia, Central Asia, Latin America and Middle East where the company has access to a network of local partners and government contacts. Today we are a diverse team of engineers, economists, and policy experts with a focus on mitigation in the oil and gas sector, carbon and climate finance, emission reduction policies and MRV.

Our Team

Stephanie Saunier

Managing Director

Stéphanie Saunier is an expert on emission and mitigation potential for greenhouse gas emissions from the Oil and Gas sector. Over the past decade she has worked extensively on these matters on behalf of a number of institutions including the Norwegian and Canadian Ministries of Environment, EBRD, the EU commission, AMAP and the IEA. Stephanie has been a key person and the project manager of dozen studies evaluating methane emissions mitigation and gas flare reduction projects in Europe, North America, central Asia and South America. Stephanie has a Master of Engineering and Management, from Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Paris, and has performed the INSEAD Management Acceleration Program. Before joining Carbon Limits, she worked for over 4 years at Schlumberger Carbon Services in the field of CO2 storage (CCS).

François Sammut

Director

François Sammut has over 30 years of experience in the fields of climate change, cleaner production, water treatment and waste management. He has worked on and managed projects for government bodies, international finance institutions and private companies in over 30 industrial and commercial sectors. François has extensive international experience, and has particularly strong expertise in the identification and assessment of energy and resource efficiency projects, and determining their potential for attracting carbon and climate finance. Over the past 15 years François has been working almost exclusively on the identification and development of GHG mitigation projects, MRV (Monitoring, Reporting & Verification) for GHG emissions and on the design of emission trading systems and other carbon pricing instruments.

Randall Spalding-Fecher

Director

Dr. Randall Spalding Fecher has more than 20 years’ experience in energy and climate change policy. He has special expertise in results-based climate finance, GHG mitigation methodologies and project development. Randall has supported the next generation of carbon market and climate finance funds, such as the Transformative Asset Carbon Facility, and Carbon Partnership Facility and has worked with Multi-lateral Development Banks on GHG accounting and climate finance labelling.  He is leading the development of some of the first pilot activities that could inform future crediting under the Paris Agreement. He led the “Impact of CDM” research for the High-Level Panel on the CDM Policy Dialogue, reviewed and consolidated more than 40 CDM baseline and monitoring methodologies, and served as a consultant to the UNFCCC on a variety of technical issues.

Hesam Darani

Director

Hesam Darani’s main focus areas are emission reduction project analysis and development in the energy sector. Hesam has a long track-record in techno-economic assessments of mitigation options (methane reduction, flare, etc.), has been developing GHG inventories, supporting countries developing Emission Trading Systems, establishing monitoring, reporting and verification systems for emission reduction projects and carrying out portfolio assessment of mitigation projects under flexible carbon crediting mechanisms (CDM, JI, FQD, national offsets, voluntary schemes…). He has a significant international experience, being involved in projects in Norway, Nigeria, Ukraine, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Uganda, Canada, US, Qatar, Turkey, Iran, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Russia and Hungary, including numerous field jobs.

Irina Isakova

Associate Director

Irina Isakova is a climate change expert, helping governments and countries on a number of issues related to climate change mitigation. She has developed user-friendly and flexible Excel-based tools – for accounting of GHG emissions on corporate and national level and estimating abatement costs/potential. Irina is currently helping several countries explore opportunities for international cooperation under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, as well as in voluntary carbon markets. Irina also has vast experience in performing capacity building workshops.

Irina’s expertise covers a wide range of industries – from biogas and agriculture to energy and oil and gas sector. She has worked with private and public sector clients, as well as development banks across Europe, Middle East, Africa and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries.

Gaëlle Cauchois

Associate Director

Gaëlle has been involved in more than 60 carbon capture, utilisation and storage, flaring, methane emission reduction related projects in around 20 countries. Her field of expertise is Carbon Capture and Storage but she is always willing to engage in technical, economic and environmental assessments of different value chains. As opposed to analyses that offer answers for a snapshot in time, Gaëlle likes to bring data to life by offering her clients user-friendly and interactive tools. Before joining Carbon Limits, Gaëlle worked as an independent consultant in the field of energy and climate change mitigation and worked for DNV GL, Geogreen and ENGIE. Gaëlle has a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Industries Chimiques, Nancy, France.

Olga Gassan-zade

Senior Advisor

Olga has over 20 years’ experience in the field of climate policy and carbon markets. Her experience spans across all the key issues underpinning low emission planning, including GHG inventories, facility-level Monitoring, Reporting and Verificaiton, national and sectoral climate strategies and measures, as well as market-based instruments. In her previous work for the analytical powerhouse Point Carbon, she followed EU ETS operationalization in the new EU member states, emerging emissions trading schemes in Ukraine, Japan, and Kazakhstan, and the larger impact of EU energy and climate policies on neighbourhood countries. She has an expert understanding of the UNFCCC negotiation process and has participated in Conferences of Parties as an observer, staff member of the UNFCCC Secretariat, and as part of a party delegation.

Hanna Korniyenko

Principal Consultant

Hanna Korniyenko is a climate change policy and carbon markets consultant with 14 years experience. During her career, Hanna has contributed to analysis of international and national carbon and energy market dynamics, assessment of environmental and energy policies and legislation, identification of GHG mitigation policies for Eastern European and Central Asian countries. Her professional areas of interest include emerging carbon markets and non-market policies, and international negotiations. Over the last years, she has worked for private consulting companies and international technical assistance projects. Prior to joining Carbon Limits, Hanna oversaw the Carbon Tax and interaction with MRV/ETS in the World Bank’s Partnership for Market Readiness project in Ukraine. She is based in Ukraine and holds a MSc in Environmental Sciences and Policy from the joint programme of the Central European University and University of Manchester.

Anastasia Isaenko

Principal Consultant

Anastasia Isaenko is educated in Mechanical Engineering. She worked with climate change mitigation issues since 2007, with a primary focus on CCUS.

She was involved in a wide range of consultancy projects covering technical, financial, regulatory and social aspects. Her expertise spans from risk management, technology qualification, project reviews, gap analyses, economic and regulatory assessments, development of roadmaps, public engagement plans and emission accounting methodology.

In addition to CCUS projects she has been engaged in renewable energy activities (wave and tidal energy converters) and several oil & gas projects in Russia.

Paula Macías Díaz

Principal Consultant

Paula has 6-year experience in the field of environment, energy and climate change mitigation in Mexico. She worked as a consultant providing services to the energy sector and worked as the deputy director of mitigation policies at the Ministry of the Environment. There, as head of the National Emissions Registry, she was a key resource in the design and implementation of the MRV system at the national level. As a consultant at Carbon Limits, she contributed to the first extensive Mexican ETS training involving more than 250 companies that will be covered by the program. Paula has supported the Mexican government, companies, the accreditation entity and verification bodies to build capacity in MRV and ETS. Paula has a master’s degree in environmental sciences from University of Cologne.

Benjamin Heras Cruz

Principal Consultant

Benjamin Heras is an expert on climate change mitigation in the oil and gas sector. Benjamin has worked extensively on capacity building for management of methane emissions. Additionally, he has supported the development of measurement campaigns in various countries. Benjamin has in-depth knowledge of regulatory aspects related to climate and carbon finance. Prior to Carbon Limits, Benjamín worked at SEMARNAT as well as at the Agency for Safety, Energy and Environment (ASEA) in Mexico on the methane reduction and CCS topics. Benjamin is an industrial and systems engineer from the Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus Sinaloa, and has a M.Sc. in Environmental and Energy Management from George Washington University.

Vladyslav Zhezherin

Principal Consultant

Vladyslav Zhezherin has 18 years’ experience in the area of climate change, including greenhouse gas emissions monitoring, reporting and verification (GHG MRV), capacity building and training, as well as climate change policy analysis and advice. Most recently he assisted the Government of Ukraine in establishing an MRV system in line with the EU ETS rules, as well as provided training and support to the operators of installations. Prior to this he was Ukraine’s National Coordinator for an EU technical assistance project aimed at addressing climate change issues in the EU Eastern Neighborhood countries. He also has practical experience in identification, development, implementation and management of GHG emission reduction projects in Eastern European countries under the Joint Implementation, a crediting mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol. He holds an MSc in Environmental Change and Management from Oxford University.

Irina Ålund

Principal Consultant

Irina Ålund has extensive experience in assessment and improvement of policy measures on climate change and greenhouse gas emissions mitigation in the agricultural sector. Before joining Carbon Limits in 2020 she worked as a senior advisor at the Norwegian Agriculture Agency where she developed an expertise on biogas. Irina has assisted as a resource and advisor on several projects on biogas potential managed by the Norwegian Environmental agency. She has also participated in the preparation of a cross-sectoral report on the abatement options that can contribute to achieving Norway’s climate goals for 2030 in the non-ETS sectors (Klimakur 2030). Irina has a master’s degree in economics from the University of Oslo.

Christos Kalavrytinos

Mist Product Manager

Chris is Mist product manager and works with oil and gas companies to help them better understand and mitigate their methane emissions. He comes with a strong experience on product design, modelling knowledge and developing decision-support systems from academia and the energy industry – both oil and gas and renewables.

Manon Simon

Senior Consultant

Manon Simon studied business engineering at NHH in Bergen and at Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium. She specializes in energy, climate, and environment. Manon works on projects which cover a wide range of topics: methane emissions along the oil & gas value chain, carbon capture and storage (CCS), biogas and this list is growing every day. On top of the wide range of topics, Manon works on a wide range of tasks. Within her projects, she covers qualitative, quantitative, and technical aspects. Manon also has experience with tool development, modelling and training delivery. Her work is characterized by her creativity and she is always motivated to expand her skills and knowledge to serve climate change mitigation.

Irina Semykina

Senior Consultant

Irina is an expert in economics of low-carbon energy transition. She is experienced in GHG emissions accounting and setting up decarbonisation strategies for oil and gas companies. She has more than 12 years of experience working on sustainable development of the oil and gas sector in Russian research institutes and governmental agencies. Irina has also worked at OGCI, where she focused on initiatives aiming at methane emissions reduction from natural gas supply chains. She holds a master’s degree in Economics and Policy of Energy and the Environment from University College London and a PhD in Economics from the Russian Academy of Sciences. Irina joined Carbon Limits as a Senior Consultant in 2022.

Malavika Venugopal

Senior Consultant

Malavika Venugopal is a graduate of InnoEnergy’s dual Masters program in Renewable Energy and Entrepreneurship. Specialising in energy modelling, she did her Master’s thesis with the IEA, developing a cost model for carbon capture and synfuel production. Prior to her Masters, Malavika worked in Singapore as an energy consultant for a renewable elerctricity retailer, managing the electricity spot price risk at the company. She also worked as a field engineer, ensuring refineries to comply with environmental laws while venting and releasing wastewater into the environment. Over the course of 5 years, Malavika has worked with city governments on projects aimed at achieving their NDCs using renewable energy and emission abatement policies.

Laura Camila Cruz

Senior consultant

Laura is a civil engineer with a master’s degree in sustainability from the University of Sydney. She has more than 12 years of experience in Latin America, where she has worked in governmental institutions, multilaterals and international cooperation agencies.  Laura is an expert in climate policy, climate finance and carbon markets.

Valentin Gentile

Senior Consultant

Valentin Gentile graduated  from NTNU in Trondheim in 2019 with a MSc in Industrial Ecology. He is an expert in Material Flow Analysis (MFA), Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), climate change mitigation and waste management. Valentin participated in several innovation camps aiming at finding sustainable solutions for different actors around Norway. He has experience in entrepreneurship and worked as a freelance consultant specialized in dynamic MFA. On the side Valentin is also Daily Operations Manager at Wecycle, a local plastic recycling organization that he contributed to establish. Valentin joined Carbon Limits in 2021 and is so far participating in CCUS and biogas related projects.

Mazen Cheikh

Consultant

Mazen is an energy engineer with a solid background within the different energy systems (from technical, regulatory and policy point of views). He finished his mechanical engineering and energy masters in 2019 and is currently pursuing a second masters in Energy Studies at the American University of Beirut. Mazen has experience in delivering energy and environmental services with the Lebanese Center for energy conservation, the reference institute in Lebanon. In addition, he completed a one-year assignment with the international railway manufacturer ALSTOM. Driven by his passion toward climate change mitigation, he joined Carbon Limits as a consultant, to help countries and companies reduce their emissions.

Damon Burtt

Consultant

Damon Burtt will soon graduate from Carleton University as a mechanical engineer where he has focused on quantifying flare methane emissions and efficiencies of flares subject to a turbulent crosswind. He completed an undergraduate degree in Environmental Engineering from Western University. His area of expertise is methane emissions from the oil and gas sector. Damon comes also with some previous field experience in the upstream oil and gas industry in Western Canada quantifying greenhouse gas emissions. Damon joined Carbon Limits as a consultant in 2022.

 

 

Maxime Malbranque

Consultant

Maxime will soon graduate from NTNU in Trondheim with a Msc in Industrial Ecology. Dedicating his master’s thesis to the study of alternative climate change mitigation scenarios, he directly jumped from the academic field to Carbon Limits to convert theory into actions. Knowledgeable about Life Cycle Assessment, Material Flow Analysis and Input-Output Analysis, his toolbox is completed by a master’s degree in multidisciplinary engineering at Ecole Centrale de Lyon which gave him experience with energy systems, computer science and project management.

Quentin Toulemonde

Analyst

Quentin is our new intern from Mines de Paris, carrying out there his last year of engineering studies. He has experience working with the automative and transport sectors, including logistics. He will be there from January to June 2023.

Torleif Haugland

Board director

With a background in economics and statistics, Torleif, over his entire career worked on a broad set of energy and environmental issues, both as staff of national and international governmental institutions, research positions and as a consultant. He has managed a large number of multi-disciplinary projects on international energy and environment policies, climate change policy, energy sector liberalization, petroleum industry social responsibility, and development assistance. He has contributed to numerous professional articles and books. A main focus of his work over the past 15 years has been on climate change mitigation in the oil and gas industry, including research, advisory services and direct involvement in project preparation and co-financing of investments in greenhouse gas emission reduction activities. Torleif Haugland is co-founder of Carbon Limits AS.

Tore Holm

Senior Advisor

Tore Holm has ~30 years’ experience in the International and Norwegian Oil and Gas business, primarily with Shell. He has been with Carbon Limits since 2012. He also chairs the board of Enova, a public enterprise to drive forward the changeover to more environmentally friendly consumption and generation of energy in Norway.

Michele Stua

Senior Advisor

Michele comes in as an external advisor to Carbon Limits on Article6 of the Paris Agreement and international carbon mechanisms. Michele holds a 25-year experience in international politics, 15 of which expressly dedicated to international climate policy

Kathleen Ang

Executive Assistant

Kathleen provides  essential support to our team of sustainability warriors. An efficient angel as there are not many.

Jane Lilletvedt

Office Manager

Jane is our accountant and supports our activities to help us make a difference to climate change mitigation. Jane graduated from BI Business School and is currently completing a Master of public administration.