Carbon Tracker is an independent financial think-tank that has been in operation since 2007, working towards the UN goal of ending the construction of new coal plants by 2020. Using machine learning techniques trained on micro-satellite imagery, Carbon Tracker targets gas-powered energy plants to accurately estimate their emissions. Carbon Tracker also measures the power plants’ impact based on nearby infrastructure and local electricity use, and continuously monitors CO2 emittance with automatic updates. This AI innovation is especially useful for monitoring coal plants that do not give off easy-to-measure coal plumes, and for monitoring in jurisdictions that do not require emissions reporting. This innovative technology thus has an (unofficial) global reach, which is further enhanced by its strategy of reaching beyond regulators into local communities. Through their annual reports, Carbon Tracker engages governments, institutional investors and the fossil fuel industry, making significant contributions to the environmental and shareholder activist communities by providing data to support accurate carbon emissions estimates (which are much higher than indicated by official figures). In the future, Carbon Tracker could help inform full-cost pricing of carbon tax and pinpoint plants directly responsible for over-emitting.
Peters, W., Jacobson, A.R., Sweeney, C., Andrews, A.E., Conway, T.J., Masarie, K., Miller, J.B., Bruhwiler, L.M., Pétron, G., Hirsch, A.I. and Worthy, D.E., 2007. An atmospheric perspective on North American carbon dioxide exchange: CarbonTracker. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(48), pp.18925-18930.
See also:
Carbon Tracker. (2020). Retrieved from https://carbontracker.org/
Categories
Artificial Intelligence, Climate Change, Data, Ecological Monitoring, Industry/Natural Commodities, Monitoring, Pollution, Regulation, Visual Technologies
Air Pollution Robot
The dangers of air pollution to human health are well documented, though the traditional methodology of collecting and reporting on sample lags behind the need to keep abreast and regulate air pollution in a meaningful amount of time. The use of drones and robots have been identified by researchers as resources that can be tweaked […]
Artificial Life, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Ecological Monitoring, Industry/Natural Commodities, Lifestyle, Monitoring
Telematic Rivers
Erica Kermani’s artwork seeks to answer a central question: if rivers were seeing an equal, living entity, would humans take issues like climate change threatening them more seriously? In his year-long art exhibition in 2017, Kermani, in collaboration with Diana Salcedo & Jeana Chesnik, created a new forum of interaction between humans and rivers to […]
Climate Change, Ecological Monitoring, Lifestyle, Monitoring, Pollution, Visual Technologies
Co-occupied Boundaries
Art is easily found in nature but rarely is what considered art today inherently natural. The concept of co-occupied mediums that serve to be both functional for nature and aesthetically pleasing to people is being actively explored by Asya Ilgun and Phil Ayres, from the CITAstudio at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. In […]
Climate Change, Ecological Monitoring, Lifestyle, Monitoring, Pollution, Visual Technologies