What if we had a system that could capture and report green house gas emissions from sites all over the world? What if this system could monitor emissions accurately in real time, so we could pinpoint where pollution is coming from? What if we had a system that could tell us if climate policies are actually working? What if the data collected by this system was accessible and free to the public?
We now a system that does all of these things. It’s called Climate TRACE (Tracking Real Time Atmospheric Carbon Emissions). The system gathers data and images from existing satellites. Then Artificial Intelligence and machine learning tools are used to differentiate and measure emissions from buildings, power plants, manufacturing plants, and factory farms.
Climate TRACE is an amazing breakthrough. For the first time pollution can be measured through direct observation on a site specific basis. At last, polluters can be held accountable. There is no longer any place to hide.
Until late 2021, we only had a very general idea where green house gases were coming from. The data we had was self-reported by polluters, and often years late. Scientists were forced to use benchmarks, like how many tons of coal were burned, or how much concrete and steel were produced, to calculate emissions. Many sources of emissions went unreported. All of this made it difficult to quantify emissions, and almost impossible to measure whether climate policies were having any effect.
But despite this dismal state of affairs, a small group scientists, activists and tech companies began to work on a new, satellite-based approach. They received a grant from Google.org* in 2019, and by the fall of 2021, they released an inventory of GHG emissions from power plants worldwide.
Then Al Gore got involved. He asked the group a bigger question: What if all major sources of GHG emissions could be measured and mapped?
It turns out that there were many projects around the world measuring specific pollution sources. Johns Hopkins measures pollution from ground transportation. A start up called Synthetics measures emissions from factory farms. Blue Sky Analytics measures crop and forest fires. Ocean Mines maps pollution from ships.
From these and other projects, a centralized Climate TRACE encyclopedia, a sort of Wikipedia of pollution data, was created. Other projects are encouraged to join it. It is a miracle of collaboration and software engineering that this has come together.
As of November, 2022 the Climate TRACE inventory included over 72,000 of the most polluting sites in the world. The data can be searched by dozens of sectors—everything from rice production in Malaysia to fossil fuel extraction in the North Sea. And emissions are now differentiated by three green house gases: carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. You can see it for yourself at www.climatetrace.org.
What’s Next?
Climate TRACE is constantly evolving and improving. As technologies and methodologies improve, the system will provide a more accurate and comprehensive picture of global emissions. The current goal is to provide monthly and weekly data on all major sources of emissions.
It will be exciting to see how the data is used. Governments would know which industries need regulations and incentives to reduce emissions. Investors will be able to evaluate climate risks. And corporations can now green their supply chains.
If the US put a carbon tax in place, we would be able to measure it’s effectiveness, and adjust the carbon price accordingly. Cap and trade programs could measured, too. Strategies to reduce emissions from buildings could be tried and tested. With Climate TRACE, all these strategies are now possible. Can you imagine that?