Sachini Weerasinghe: Breaking the Wall of Setting Carbon Budgets

Sachini Weerasinghe, Massey University

Carbon budgets are established to measure progress toward achieving climate targets outlined in international policies. However, current budget allocation methods overlook temporal dynamics affecting emissions. Our approach integrates prospective dynamics to estimate future emissions at national or sectoral levels and allocates carbon budgets dynamically. It supports more flexible and timely formulation of policy measures for effective national and sectoral decarbonisation strategies.

Sachini is a doctoral scholar at Massey University specialising in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with a focus on the built environment and climate change mitigation. Her PhD work investigates the applicability of dynamic and prospective LCA approaches to better inform policy and sustainability decisions in both national and building sectoral scales. She is an engineer by profession, having completed both her bachelor's and master's degrees in Sri Lanka. She is also a member in International Energy Agency EBC Annex 89.