A new global tool reveals that much more is emitted than what governments declare
A new tool that tracks Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions worldwide threatens unmask the false figures that many governments are offering, which may not be declaring the real amounts of pollutants that are emitted into the atmosphere. It also provides detailed data on the main polluting industries in Spain.
This is the digital platform Climate Tracepromoted by former US Vice President Al Gore, which has made it known taking advantage of the COP27 in Egypt. The first thing that Climate Trace has revealed is really disturbing: the real emissions that are being released into the atmosphere are approximately three times higher than what those responsible declare.
In the case of Spain, the complete list of GHG emitting points appears on this website, detailing the location, nature of the facilities, amount of emissions and other data. There is also a breakdown by type of gas and industrial activity, and it can be compared with other countries on the planet. In total there are 260 outbreaks in our country.
In this other link, it is possible to see it in the form of a map, either of Spain or of the planet as a whole, which offers a global vision of the magnitude of the emissions problem.
Climate Trace makes it possible to measure the real levels of CO2 and other greenhouse gases as soon as they are emitted, thanks to current technology enabled by satellites and other information and artificial intelligence systems. It avoids, for the first time, having to rely on data provided by the countries themselveswhich do not always declare the real figures and tend to underestimate emissions.
This new system, which has obtained the backing of the UN, monitors emissions from 72,000 specific sites around the world, including all kinds of industry, energy, transport, cities, ports and airports facilities. As expected, oil and gas production fields and facilities are the main sources of pollutant emissions.
The initiative has come from a conglomerate of laboratories and research entities, companies and NGOs, but has also received funding from Google. Al Gore has stated that “currently available emissions data is not detailed enough to be used for decision making.”
In fact, in the specific case of Saudi Arabia, it has been seen that there is a big difference between the emissions declared by its government and those that have been empirically measured using the new system. “The emissions are greater than those that have been declared & rdquor;, said Gore, who in statements to The Guardian has said that Climate Trace will serve to “protect against cheating & rdquor; that some world leaders or companies in the sector still do when reporting on emissions.
Spain, the issuer number 33 in the world
In the case of Spain, Climate Trace identifies, one by one, the main sources of emissions into the atmosphere, and among them are included factories and industries of all kinds (cement plants, above all), but also airports, ports or agricultural and livestock farms.
The Mediterranean coast, the north and the center seem to bring together most of the polluting points in Spain, although these are distributed throughout the country, including Andalusia in a prominent way.
Spain, in the world ranking of emitters of greenhouse gases, it ranks 33rd in a list of 240 states. Our country causes 0.55% of all global emissions on the planet.
The largest global emitter is still China, which represents 28% of all the gases that are emitted annually into the atmosphere, followed by the United States, with 11.4%; India, with 6.9% and Russia, with 6% of the total.
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