About - Climate TRACE
ABOUT CLIMATE TRACE
Climate TRACE is the leading open index for global climate emissions data. We are building tools to allow the tech community to make sense of GHG emissions
Our mission
We harness satellite imagery and other forms of remote sensing, artificial intelligence, and collective data science expertise to track human-caused GHG emissions as they happen.
This brings radical transparency and accountability to where emissions are occurring, and generates actionable insights that drive emissions reductions. We empower leaders from the private and public sectors to glean actionable insights that drive stronger climate policy and strategy.
In the Numbers
Collaborating organizations
Continents
Different data sources
Emitting assets
Countries and regions
Global anthropogenic emissions
Our members
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore is known globally for his work to combat climate change. He is the author of the #1 New York Times best-seller “An Inconvenient Truth,” which was also made into an Oscar-winning documentary. In 2007, Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for “informing the world of the dangers posed by climate change.”
Blue Sky Analytics leads the Climate TRACE work on land use and land cover achange by fires. They combine satellite data with ground measurements into a comprehensive platform to provide high-resolution, high-frequency, and near-real-time information on key environmental indicators in air, water, and land.
(carbon)plan leads the Climate TRACE work on analyzing forest carbon flux - emissions from removal of forests by logging or fire and sequestration from growing forests . (carbon)plan is a nonprofit that analyzes climate solutions, bringing transparency and rigorous science to complex problems. They build open source data and tools; explain complex concepts with interactive data and visuals; and work with companies, non-profits, and government organizations to help analyze climate programs.
Earthrise Alliance leads the Climate TRACE user interface and platform development. Earthrise is a philanthropic organization that converts Earth systems data into relevant and actionable knowledge to combat climate change. Earthrise develops and supports policies that fully access and utilize satellite data to both mitigate climate change and adapt to its effects.
Everimpact co-leads the Climate TRACE work on emissions monitoring from road transport. Everimpact combines data from satellites, ground sensors, traffic, buildings, and other IoT devices into a climate monitoring system that helps a city or company measure and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
Hudson Carbon leads the Climate TRACE work on modeling emissions from agriculture including from manure, cattle, rice cultivation and more. Hudson Carbon is a research institute that studies the carbon storage potential of soil managed with regenerative agricultural practices - practices that are profitable while improving soil health and function. Hudson Carbon provides scientific data and develops simplified tests to quantify agricultural carbon sequestration.
Hypervine leads the Climate TRACE work on modeling emissions from mining and mineral extraction activities. Hytpervine.io is digitizing the largest industry in the world. They help companies—especially in the construction and mining industries—understand how their sites can improve operations, in part through satellite imagery, AI, and blockchain technology.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL) Research and Exploratory Development program is co-lead on the Climate TRACE coalition for understanding the emissions associated with road transportation based on satellite imagery and other remote sensing data. JHUAPL provides critical contributions to critical challenges with analysis, systems engineering, and research and development.
OceanMind leads the Climate TRACE work on modeling emissions from shipping activity. Using satellites and AI, OceanMind empowers governments and the seafood industry to improve compliance with fishing regulations around the world. At Climate TRACE, they’re now using their expertise monitoring oceans and vessels to understand the emissions associated with shipping.
RMI leads the Climate TRACE work on modeling emissions from oil refining and oil & gas production. RMI is an independent, non-partisan, nonprofit organization of experts that for nearly 40 years has published groundbreaking research and analysis. They work to decarbonize energy systems through rapid, market-based change.
TransitionZero leads the Climate TRACE work on modeling emissions from manufacturing industry activities. TransitionZero supports investors, governments, companies, and members of civil society seeking to support the shift to zero-carbon. They combine satellite imagery, machine learning, and financial modelling to provide near-real-time information to support business and policy decisions.
WattTime leads the Climate TRACE work on modeling emissions from the power sector. WattTime is a nonprofit that empowers people, companies, policymakers, and countries to slash emissions and choose cleaner energy. Founded by UC Berkeley researchers, they develop data-driven tools and policies that increase environmental and social good.
Our Story
For decades, measurements such as the Keeling Curve have told us how much greenhouse gases are in the Earth’s atmosphere. Climate TRACE formed in 2020 to trace where those gases are coming from to their specific sources - insight that is crucial for making meaningful reductions.
Until now, emissions inventories have been based on self-reported, years-late data from companies, industries, and countries. It’s been clear that we need better data to support swift climate action, new policies, big emissions reductions, and commitments to the Paris Agreement.>
That’s where Climate TRACE comes in. In recent years, countless organizations in the tech sector have made profound advancements in the fields of artificial intelligence, big data, satellite imagery, and other remote sensing. But far too many of these game-changing innovations are sitting siloed in individual organizations. By combining them all in one interoperable technology “stack”, we believe it’s now possible to instead develop a groundbreaking 21st-century approach to emissions monitoring… one that is independent, transparent, and timely.
The journey began in 2019 when two of our founding coalition members teamed up to apply AI to satellite data to monitor emissions from all power plants worldwide. The very day the project was announced, the teams were inundated with offers from dozens of other nonprofits, universities, government labs, and companies around the world, all asking: if even more of us teams up, could we collectively monitor nearly all human-caused greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally?
And so Climate TRACE was born in mid-2020 with nine founding coalition members. (We’ve since grown to more than a dozen members and many more contributing organizations.) We worked quickly, and TIME named us one of its Best Inventions of 2020 in the ‘experimental’ category.
And the project will take time, but it’s working. Together, we’ve begun to make GHG emissions visible. By tracing the root of the climate crisis, we hope to empower policy makers, scientists, companies, activists and people everywhere with better tools to help solve it.
Climate trace Newsletter
Stay up-to-date on our efforts to track greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with unprecedented detail and speed.
