Climate TRACE's bold plan to map emissions with satellites, sensors & AI, Ep #64

Aug 8, 2023

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We all know that addressing climate change means eliminating greenhouse gas emissions, but have you ever stopped to wonder how we know how much we’re actually emitting? The truth is we haven’t really known, but instead rely on estimates. These estimates fail to provide very specific data about where exactly emissions are coming from, when, and what investment and policy choices might be most effective in turning them off.

Today’s episode focused on an incredibly ambitious initiative called Climate TRACE, a collaboration of over 100 organizations that use a dizzying number of satellites and remote sensors to actually detect and track emissions at a global level. Vice President Al Gore is a Co-Founder of the initiative, along with Gavin McCormick who runs a nonprofit called WattTime. We’re joined today by Gavin who explains how Climate TRACE works, the Vice President’s role in the effort, their theories of change, surprises, progress, and hopes for the initiative, and much more. Climate TRACE is positioned to play a central role in improving transparency and planning at a global level, and I was thrilled to get to learn more about it through this interview. Enjoy.

In today’s episode, we cover:

[3:18] Gavin’s background & the climate work he’s leading today
[3:49] WattTime & what it’s doing today
[4:45] Climate TRACE & how it got started
[6:28] Why is detailed emissions mapping so important?
[10:59] Tracking theories of change
[12:11] Surprises & leading theories of change for Climate TRACE
[13:11] How this dataset can be helpful for Chief Sustainability Officers & those in sustainability roles
[15:01] Climate-positive investment opportunities through Climate TRACE
[15:44] Vice President Al Gore’s role in the initiative
[16:10] How has AI been helpful to Climate TRACE & its pursued outcomes
[19:02] What does it take to work with so many groups in practice & why different groups are needed?
[21:47] Funding from Google.org & contributions from other companies
[23:04] What has Climate TRACE achieved so far
[25:21] The biggest learning from Climate TRACE yet
[26:44] Surprises on the technical side around data collection & analysis at scale
[28:34] What comes next for Climate TRACE
[33:36] Replication of Climate TRACE’s model in other spaces
[34:43] What’s next for WattTime
[36:58] How policy can be accelerated through data
[39:35] What can listeners do to help

Resources Mentioned

Connect with Gavin McCormick

Connect with Gavin on LinkedIn

Connect with Jason Rissman

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