Oil and gas emissions triple what was reported, says platform launched by Al Gore

Greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas would be three times higher than official data, points out Climate Trace, a new platform based on satellite information and presented at COP27 in Egypt this Wednesday (9th). ).

Managed by a group of research institutes and companies from around the world, the new tool has located 70,000 installations around the world that release emissions into the atmosphere and that belong to sectors such as heavy industry, energy, agriculture, transport and mining.

The Climate Trace platform uses artificial intelligence to analyze data from more than 300 satellites and thousands of sensors on land and at sea. In this way, he found that the 14 largest emitters are all oil and gas extraction plants.

The most polluting point on the planet is the Texas Permian Basin, one of the largest oil fields in the world, in the United States, said former US Vice President Al Gore, one of the founders of the project, which will regularly update its information.

“Based on the new data on methane and combustion, we estimate that actual emissions are three times higher than what has been reported,” Al Gore said at the Climate Trace launch event during the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Emitted by leaks from oil and gas plants and also by other human activities such as livestock, methane is responsible for 30% of the global rise in temperatures to date.

Last year, dozens of countries pledged to reduce pollution from this greenhouse gas, which is more potent than carbon dioxide.

The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, praised the initiative, which can be consulted on the official website. According to Guterres, the page provides valuable information, thanks to direct observation, which makes it more difficult to “cheat”.

“This should be a wake-up call for governments and the financial sector, in particular, those who continue to invest in fossil fuel pollution,” added Guterres.