From Florida Rivers to Global Climate Solutions: A Leader in Methane Action
By Keemia Soltani-Zhang, B.A. ‘26
Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE) Lead Methane Research Fellow Gil Damon is a Gates Cambridge Scholar, a former NASA and White House intern, and previous graduate researcher for the Royal Society. Raised in the Florida Panhandle, Damon grew up watching rivers change color, oyster beds collapse, and the BP oil spill tank the local economy. During college, he worked as captain of a riverboat on his hometown river, teaching people about ecology and showcasing local gators, manatees, and bird life.
“It was hard not to care about the changes I saw,” he commented. He went to Tallahassee Community College, then studied psychology and political science at Florida State University before earning his Masters of Public Policy at Cambridge.
“I’m always very interested in aerospace and also very interested in this planet of ours,” said Damon, who holds a private pilot’s license. “My master’s research was on space debris, and I did a placement with the UK’s Royal Society as they were preparing their government for global environmental negotiations.” Damon said. After he came home from Cambridge, Damon started a nonprofit to advocate for his hometown’s waterways and fishing economy.
“Then, I read the coolest job description I’d ever read: ‘Hey, we want you to use policy and data and satellites to help with global warming,’” said Damon. Since joining CLEE, he’s helped build the Subnational Methane Action Coalition, which now includes more than 20 state governments working together to cut methane emissions in the energy, agriculture, and waste sectors. Among other tools, Damon uses data from new satellites to help policymakers tackle preventable methane releases.
“The exciting thing about methane is that it’s a big problem, but it’s a problem we can solve,” Damon says. “It accounts for about a third of the warming our planet has seen, but doesn’t live in the atmosphere for very long. If we can interrupt the cycle of replenishing it in our atmosphere, we can very quickly bend the path of warming. It’s an incredibly powerful strategy, and it can change the world.”
Damon also points out that the utilization of methane as a fuel source is often profitable. “This is a fuel source that can be burnt and used. It’s the main source of natural gas, so that means we can help folks use it to produce energy responsibly.” CLEE’s methane team also works to reduce other pollutants that typically accompany methane, which can be hazardous to human health as well.
CLEE has grown exponentially since Damon joined in 2022, swelling from a single-digit team to one of Berkeley Law’s biggest research centers. Damon recalls in his early days at CLEE, with staffers “working in a couple of cubicles in this narrow, dark little hallway at the law school proper,” Damon said.
Damon acknowledges that his three-and-a-half year tenure is not a long time for the kind of growth CLEE has had. “We’ve gone from a very small staff to what we are today – which is dozens of researchers, a new office, a lot of new projects, a lot of new mandates, a lot of great new accomplishments,” Damon declares. “It’s been really kind of a fun thing to see progress. We have really good relationships with public officials at all levels. So, as a result of that, CLEE tends to be quite relevant.”
“I get to work with the legendary [CLEE Project Climate Director] Ken Alex on the projects that are new and are meaningful and have an impact today. There’s a lot of challenges that emerge in terms of the data that we employ and the relationships we build and the needs of the policymakers that we serve. It has been a very powerful experience. I’m grateful for it.”
Damon is departing his current role at CLEE later this summer to attend Yale Law School, but hopes to remain involved in CLEE’s work. “One of the interesting things about CLEE fellowship is that it can be what you make it,” Damon expressed. “We have fellows who have been here for over a decade, and then we’ve got folks who are here for a year or two. It’s often self-directed, and I think that can be really empowering.”
This article was made possible through support from the Erin Ziegler Fund for CLEE.