Climate TRACE, an independent coalition of researchers and tech companies that monitor global greenhouse emissions, found that in 2021, an estimated 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent gases went unreported by wealthy nations required to report to the U.N., a number that comprised 5 percent of total global emissions that year.
Pushing for transparency in emission data, Climate TRACE’s assessments aim to provide a reality check for industries and countries being held accountable for emission cuts. Their data collection models, which combine satellites and AI to target pollution sources that are easy to spot, examined 352 million greenhouse gas sources in their most recent assessment, with the most significant underreporting discovered in oil and gas operations.
WattTime, a 2014 CITRIS Foundry venture, is a founding member of Climate TRACE.