Climate TRACE

Climate TRACE (Tracking Real-Time Atmospheric Carbon Emissions)^[1] is an independent group which monitors and publishes greenhouse gas emissions.^[2] It launched in 2021 before COP26,^[3] and improves monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of both carbon dioxide and methane.^[4][5] The group monitors sources such as coal mines and power station smokestacks worldwide,^[6] with satellite data (but not their own satellites) and artificial intelligence.^[7][8]

Time magazine named it as one of the hundred best inventions of 2020.^[9] Their emissions map is the largest global inventory and interactive map of greenhouse gas emission sources.^[10][11][12] According to Kelly Sims Gallagher it could influence the politics of climate change by reducing MRV disputes, and lead to more ambitious climate pledges.^[4]

Developed countries' annual reports to the UNFCCC are submitted over a year after the end of the monitored year.^[13] Developing countries in the Paris Agreement will submit every two years.^[14][15] Some large emitters, such as Iran which has not ratified the agreement, have not submitted a greenhouse gas inventory in the 2020s.^[16]

New data is released monthly 2 months after the emissions.^[17]