You Can Now Pinpoint Who Pollutes Most Where You Live Thanks To Al Gore
Al Gore is one of the founding members of Climate TRACE, a software that uses existing satellites to accurately pinpoint sources of global emissions.
The conversation around climate change and global emissions took a new turn last week. At COP27, news of a brand-new pollution mapping tool got everyone talking. The brain behind the pollution tool is Climate TRACE, co-founded by Al Gore.
Climate TRACE is a non-profit dedicated to tracking greenhouse gas emissions. After receiving a Google.org grant in 2019, the coalition officially launched in 2020. And former VP, Al Gore, is one of the founding members.
According to the Climate TRACE website, their goal is to utilize existing satellite data to track and trace global emissions. “We’re harnessing technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to analyze over 59 trillion bytes of data from more than 300 satellites, more than 11,100 sensors, and numerous additional sources of emissions information from all over the world. The result is a groundbreaking approach to emissions monitoring… one that is independent, transparent, and timely.”
They plan to make that data publicly available via a new pollution tool the coalition unveiled at COP27. And this pollution tool is remarkable in its capabilities and specificity. It is an interactive map that users can manipulate to pinpoint the location of various emissions.
Data collected by the pollution tool tracks emissions from sectors such as forestry, waste disposal and management, oil and gas, agriculture, power, and transportation. Users can zoom in on specific emissions. Or they can search entire industries to see the impact of emissions.
Additionally, for those of us who are not as technologically minded, Al Gore’s Climate TRACE will allow you to download the associated Excel files. Those files include all the methodology and data, which is welcome news. So you can sort and filter as much as you want.
The new pollution tool offers a different perspective on global emissions. For example, in the US, companies self-report their emissions. And that leaves them open to accusations of underreporting. So, according to Gizmodo, “Getting a more accurate third-party picture of where emissions are actually coming from is the first step in increased regulations to bring those emissions down.”
After Climate TRACE unveiled its new pollution tool last week, Al Gore spoke with Protocol. He said, “Of course, the world has long known what the overall amount of greenhouse gas pollution in the atmosphere is. What’s different about this [database] is the accurate apportioning of who’s responsible for what and the granularity that allows us a focus on specific emissions sources.”
And that data is pretty neat indeed. After all, it can even detect emissions from ships on the move. However, despite how interesting news of this pollution tool is, it leaves open-ended questions on the table.
Who ultimately gets the data? Aside from interested members of the public, of course. Does Climate TRACE intend to submit the data sets from its pollution tool to localities, countries, or another authority?
Right now, the satellite information is thorough and fascinating. But what purpose will it ultimately serve? Al Gore firmly believes that the data “will be put to a lot of use in negotiations for sure,” though time will tell if it does make its way to the policy table.
