Closing Gaps in Emissions Monitoring with Climate TRACE
This addresses the problem of insufficient emissions monitoring for policymakers and the public, enabling data-driven climate action at subnational scales, though it is incremental in synthesizing existing data with gap-filling methods.
The paper tackles the lack of actionable global greenhouse gas emissions data by presenting Climate TRACE, an open-access platform that provides globally comprehensive emissions estimates for individual sources across all sectors, with monthly updates and a two-month reporting lag.
Global greenhouse gas emissions estimates are essential for monitoring and mitigation planning. Yet most datasets lack one or more characteristics that enhance their actionability, such as accuracy, global coverage, high spatial and temporal resolution, and frequent updates. To address these gaps, we present Climate TRACE (climatetrace.org), an open-access platform delivering global emissions estimates with enhanced detail, coverage, and timeliness. Climate TRACE synthesizes existing emissions data, prioritizing accuracy, coverage, and resolution, and fills gaps using sector-specific estimation approaches. The dataset is the first to provide globally comprehensive emissions estimates for individual sources (e.g., individual power plants) for all anthropogenic emitting sectors. The dataset spans January 1, 2021, to the present, with a two-month reporting lag and monthly updates. The open-access platform enables non-technical audiences to engage with detailed emissions datasets for most subnational governments worldwide. Climate TRACE supports data-driven climate action at scales where decisions are made, representing a major breakthrough for emissions accounting and mitigation.