DrGbemi Oluleye

Gbemi is an Associate Professor at Imperial College London, affiliated with the Grantham Institute, the Centre for Environmental Policy, and the Sargent Centre for Process Systems Engineering. Her research accelerates the transition to a sustainable future through market-based solutions. At the core of her work, she develops globally spatially resolved, data-driven simulation and optimisation models to quantify the strength of the economic signals generated by market-based mechanisms. Her research translates these economic signals into financial value and assesses their ability to correct market failures constraining low-carbon innovation, redirect capital, improve commercial viability, and accelerate adoption and diffusion. Her research evaluates market-based mechanisms such as emissions trading schemes (ETS), carbon taxes, Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms (CBAM), fuel mandates, Contracts for Difference (CfDs), Carbon Contracts for Difference (CCfDs), feebates, carbon insets, internal carbon pricing, and voluntary carbon markets across sectors and geographies. These market-based mechanisms shape the investment attractiveness of a broad portfolio of low-carbon innovations, including clean energy generation, energy storage and grids, hydrogen production and supply, nuclear energy, industrial decarbonisation, carbon removal and carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), building energy efficiency, heat electrification, sustainable aviation fuels, maritime fuels, road transport, and land use and nature-based solutions.

Her research is operationalised through the development of large-scale computational tools and datasets, including MIDDIC, a global decision-support platform that translates market-based mechanisms into financial value to support investment in low-carbon innovation worldwide. She has also developed the CBAM Engine, a decision-support platform that enables organisations to evaluate the financial implications of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and support strategic decision-making.

Explore the platforms:

• MIDDIC: https://middic.co.uk/
• CBAM Engine: https://cbamengine.co.uk/

She has led and delivered major international projects, including UK PACT-funded work in Malaysia on the design and operationalisation of emissions trading systems, and projects with the World Bank, UNIDO/UNFCCC, and the European Commission on industrial decarbonisation and market mechanisms. She has contributed directly to UK policy development as a member of the BEIS Strategic Advisory Board for the Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy and as a BEIS Industrial Strategy Fellow supporting the UK Hydrogen Strategy. She regularly engages with policymakers through invited briefings at the UK Parliament (All-Party Parliamentary Groups) and technical workshops with HM Treasury, Ofgem, and the National Infrastructure Commission.

Gbemi is widely recognised as a thought leader in sustainable transitions. She has delivered keynote and plenary lectures at leading global conferences including SDEWES, CHISA, RD20 International Summer School, IEA GHGT, and ICAE, and has been an invited speaker at major platforms such as Web Summit, Anthropy, Innovation Zero, DecarbConnect and Reset Connect London. Her work has also been featured in policy panels, industry forums, and international academic conferences, reflecting sustained visibility across academia, policy, and industry.

Her professional esteem is further demonstrated through other roles including Editorial Board Member of Environmental Research Letters (IOP),  Trustee of Opportunity Green, member of the UK Committee on Climate Change Carbon Budget 7 Expert Group, External Examiner for several MSc programmes (University of Birmingham, IIT Madras, and Dubai campus) and assessor for international programmes such as the University of Chicago Market Shaping Accelerator and the Royal Society Career Development Fellowship. She holds multiple senior leadership roles across  education, including Programme Director for executive education and professional  programmes such as Executing Sustainability Strategies and Green Leaders for a Sustainable Future.

Gbemi received a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria; MSc in Advanced Chemical Process Design at the University of Manchester and; PhD in Process Integration from the University of Manchester.