Will new tools that map greenhouse gas emissions give birth to the cities of the future?
The map showed a large red blotch, indicating high levels of the greenhouse gas methane. Satellites zoomed in on the blotch – a patch of land in the US state of California – to locate the culprit responsible for the release of this harmful gas, which warms the planet 86 times as much as its better known cousin, carbon dioxide.
The satellite imagery revealed several structures in the area, including buildings belonging to oil and gas plants – usual suspects when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions. However, the images showed that the methane leaking into the atmosphere and driving climate change came, in fact, from a nearby dairy farm.
It is data like this that scientists believe could revolutionise the way we tackle climate change, plan for global warming and build the cities of the future.
By interlacing data from a variety of sources, such as traffic agencies, satellites and air quality monitors, scientists have proved that it is possible to pinpoint with incredible accuracy some of the main sources of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) that warm the planet.
Thanks to advances in mapping these gases, experts can now build three-dimensional maps of entire cities that show the level of emissions that are being released by individual residential homes, commercial buildings, ports, factories and motorways. These maps can even show how the emission levels change over the course of the day, as people move around a city.
Scientists believe this could have a profound impact on the way cities are designed, allowing urban planners to identify emission hotspots and build cities and towns that reduce the level of greenhouse gas being pumped into the atmosphere.
“This is going to require the ability to look forward in time,” said Kevin Gurney, an atmospheric scientist, ecologist and policy expert who works on climate science at the University of Arizona. “We have to be able to say ‘well, if roads are built in a certain way what will this look like, what will buildings look like?’”
Gurney and other experts were speaking at an event held in Naiorbi on Tuesday on the second day of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) under the theme ‘Make the Invisible Visible: Measure the Atmosphere to Manage Emissions’.
At the event, the experts presented the Integrated Global GHG Information System (IG3IS), a collaboration between the World Meteorological Society and the United Nations Environment Programme that combines data on GHG emissions from a raft of sources. It is hoped that this tool will allow governments to accurately assess their progress towards achieving the commitments that are enshrined in the Paris Agreement while helping them to take stock of their current emission levels.
Experts at the event looked at whether IG3IS could provide new information to, for example, city-planners or oil and gas pipeline managers to help them reduce GHG emissions from their operations.
“What we really need here is empowerment,” said Halldor Thorgeirsson, director for strategy at the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat. “We need to ensure that we empower decision-makers with information if we are going to reduce emissions.”
About UNEA
The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) is the world’s most powerful decision-making body on the environment—the de-facto “Parliament for the Environment”—and responsible for tackling some of the most critical issues of our time. The assembly holds the power to dramatically change the fate of the planet and improve the lives of everyone, impacting everything from health to national security, from the plastic in our oceans to the trafficking of wildlife. Thanks to UNEA, the environment is now considered one of the world’s most pressing concerns alongside other major global issues such as peace, security, finance and health.
This year, hundreds of key decision makers, businesses and representatives of intergovernmental organizations and civil society will in May gather at UNEA-2, taking place at the United Nations Environment Programme headquarters in Nairobi, for one of the first major meetings since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Climate Agreement. The resolutions passed at UNEA-2 will set the stage for early action on implementation of the 2030 Agenda, and drive the world towards a better future, more-just future. UNEA-2 is also inclusive, with myunea.org allowing citizens to feed their concerns into the meeting and take personal ownership of the collective challenges we face.
