BAKU, Azerbaijan — Cities in Asia and the United States emit the most greenhouse gasses that cause climate change, with Shanghai the most polluted, according to new data combining observations and artificial intelligence.
Nations at UN climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan are trying to set new targets to reduce emissions and determine how much rich countries will pay to help the world. The data comes as climate officials and activists grow increasingly frustrated with what they see as talks — and the world — to cut back on planet-warming fossil fuels and the countries and companies promoting them.
Seven countries or provinces emit more than 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases, all in China, except for Texas, which ranks sixth, according to new data from the organization founded by former US Vice President Al Gore and released at COP29 on Friday. .
Using satellite and ground observations, plus artificial intelligence to fill in the gaps, Climate Trace aims to measure heat-trapping carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, as well as other traditional air pollutants around the world, including for the first time in more than 9,000 cities. territory.
Earth’s total carbon dioxide and methane pollution rose 0.7% to 61.2 billion metric tons with short-lived but more potent methane rising 0.2%. These numbers are higher than other datasets “because we have comprehensive coverage and we have observed more emissions in more sectors than is usually available,” said Gavin McCormick, founder of Climate Trace.
Shanghai’s 256 million metric tons of greenhouse gases leads all cities and exceeds that of the countries of Colombia or Norway. Tokyo’s 250 million metric tons would rank in the top 40 countries if it were a country, while New York City’s 160 million metric tons and Houston’s 150 million metric tons would be in the top 50 countries’ emissions. Seoul, South Korea, ranks fifth among cities with 142 million metric tons.
“One site in the Permian Basin in Texas is the No. 1 worst polluted site in the world,” Gore said. “And maybe I won’t be surprised, but I think about how dirty some of these sites are in Russia and China and so on. But the Permian Basin puts everything in the shade.
China, India, Iran, Indonesia and Russia will see the largest increase in emissions from 2022 to 2023, while Venezuela, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States will see the largest decrease in pollution.
The dataset – managed by scientists and analysts from various groups – also looks at traditional pollutants such as carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, ammonia, sulfur dioxide and other chemicals associated with dirty air. Burning fossil fuels releases both types of pollution, Gore said.
It “represents the greatest health threat facing humanity,” Gore said.
Gore criticized the hosting of climate talks, called COPs, by Azerbaijan, an oil country and site of the world’s first oil wells, and by the United Arab Emirates last year.
“It is unfortunate that the fossil fuel and petrostate industries have seized control of the COP process to an unhealthy degree,” Gore said. “Next year in Brazil, we will see a change in the pattern. But, you know, it is not good for the world community to give the No. 1 polluting industry in the world that can control the whole process.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has called for more to be done on climate change and sought to reduce deforestation since returning to his third term as president. But Brazil last year produced more oil than Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
On Friday, former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, former UN climate chief Christina Figueres and leading climate scientists published a letter calling for an “urgent overhaul” of climate talks.
The letter said that “the global climate process has been arrested and is no longer relevant” in response to Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev who said that oil and gas are a “gift of the gods.”
The Executive Director of the UN Environment Program, Inger Andresen, said she understood many of the frustrations in the letter calling for major reforms of the negotiation process, but said the push to reduce emissions was in line with the ongoing push by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
The one major benefit of the UN climate negotiation process is that it is the only place where victimized small island nations have an equal seat at the table, Andersen told The Associated Press. But the process has limitations because “the rules of the game are set by the member states,” he said.
Analysts from the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition said on Friday that the official list of the talks featured at least 1,770 fossil fuel lobbyists.
At a press conference with the heads of small island nations, Cedric Schuster said the negotiating bloc must remind others why the discussion is important.
“We’re here to defend the Paris agreement,” Schuster said, referring to the 2015 climate deal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit). “We are concerned that countries are forgetting that protecting the world’s most vulnerable is at the heart of this framework.” ___
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