Al Gore's climate watchdog spots rogue emissions
The carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) that have such palpable effects on climate are frustratingly elusive. Even advanced satellites struggle to pinpoint plumes of the gases, which are the dominant drivers of global warming. Instead, countries assess their emissions by piecing together direct measurements, statistics on agriculture and fossil fuel use, and modeling. This week, at the United Nations’s annual climate change conference in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), countries are presenting those emissions inventories to show whether they have made progress on promised cuts.
Yet the figures are often misleading, according to Climate Trace, an independent watchdog that is tracking emissions based on new kinds of satellite data, together with artificial intelligence (AI). Its latest assessment, released today, shows that in 2021 Russia left out greenhouse gases equivalent to 1.5 billion tons of CO2 and the United States missed 400 million tons, much of it driven by CO2 emissions from oil and gas operations. Overall that year, among wealthy nations required to report to the U.N., Climate Trace estimates 3 billion tons of CO2 equivalent gases went unreported—some 5% of total global emissions.
Related Knowledge Center: Air emissions
More than 30 years after the last major update of the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Supreme Court has upended the ability of Congress to give the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies broad scope to combat air pollution, including the emission of greenhouse gases. Meanwhile, further Biden administration efforts to limit emissions face opposition in the courts.