The Climate Trace Coalition is developing an app that uses advanced AI, machine learning, and satellite data to track greenhouse gas emissions that can be monitored in real-time. (Image credit: Pixabay)
A few weeks ago, nine tech organizations, and one US president, came together to form a coalition and announce a new initiative aimed at tackling climate action. To achieve their goal, Climate Trace (Tracking Real-Time Atmospheric Carbon Emissions) is developing a new app that will be capable of tracking GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emissions worldwide in real-time using cutting-edge technology, including advanced AI, machine-learning, and satellite data.
Climate Trace explains, “We exist to make meaningful climate action faster and easier by mobilizing the global tech community—harnessing satellites, artificial intelligence, and collective expertise—to track human-caused emissions to specific sources in real-time—independently and publicly. Climate TRACE aims to drive stronger decision-making on environmental policy, investment, corporate sustainability strategy, and more.”
Scientists already have a detailed knowledge of the amount of GHGs that are in the atmosphere, and how much is pumped-out annually every year. Still, efforts to trace those emissions to their sources have been lacking in any real advancement. For example, China stated five years ago it had underestimated the amount of coal the country used by 17% annually. This number translates to nearly 1-billion tons of GHG per year, which added to their original estimate of almost 3.5-billion tons.
A 2015 graph produced by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) shows what economic sectors worldwide produces the most GHGs, with industry, power production, and agriculture, being the top offenders. (Image credit: IPCC via the EPA)
The in-development app will help solve that problem by tracking GHG emissions from nearly every human-related activity on a global scale, such as power plants, truck transports, shipping, factories, and more. Most every country relies on the emitters themselves to compile a self-report of their emissions, which are then manually compiled by their respective government agencies to produce those results. As with any entity, human data input isn’t always completely accurate, whether it’s a product production line or even the rated speed of some hardware. The app will purportedly help mitigate any faltering numbers within the GHG spectrum.
The Climate Trace coalition has outlined exactly how their organization will operate:
1: Monitor human-caused GHG emissions using cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and satellite image processing.
2: Collaborate with data scientists and emission experts from an array of industries to bring unprecedented transparency to global pollution monitoring.
3: Partner with leaders from the private and public sectors to share valuable insights in order to drive stronger climate policy and strategy.
4: Provide the necessary tools for anyone anywhere to make better decisions to mitigate and adapt to the impacts from climate change.
The latest members of the Climate Trace coalition include members from three different continents, including Watt Time, The Earth Alliance, Blue Sky Analytics, The Rocky Mountain Institute, Hudson Carbon, Hypervine.io, (carbon)plan, The Carbon Tracker Initiative, Ocean Mind, and former US Vice President Al Gore. While the app isn’t yet available, the Coalition hopes to release the first version by the summer of next year (2021).
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