It's difficult to know exactly what approach President-elect Donald Trump will take on climate. Candidates say a lot of things as they hustle for office, but history teaches us that it's unwise to take their words too literally.
It is possible that Mr. Trump will choose to continue down the path more or less started by his predecessor. big oil is On record He urged President Biden not to repeal the bill. Of course, there is a possibility of withdrawal, but as many predicted. It's not out of the realm of possibility for him to do so. “Smart regulations” It is at the heart of climate change planning, leveraging data to maximize 'bang for the buck'.
No matter what we do, uncertainty can make us feel helpless.
Fortunately, methane is much better known than it used to be. For a long time, all anyone cared about was carbon emissions. Carbon dioxide emissions are certainly important – after all, carbon dioxide emissions are Most of global warming But methane, the second-largest cause of global warming, has certain properties that are especially noteworthy.
First of all, the warming power of methane is 80 times or more The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere during the first 20 years. Methane therefore accelerates short-term warming, making it a key target in efforts to rapidly slow climate change.
In other words, by reducing methane, we have a much better chance of meeting climate goals while working towards long-term solutions to the carbon problem.
The good news is that the technology that national and supranational governments rely on to inform and enforce climate regulation is increasingly coming from private companies. Even if governments such as the United States decide to remove methane regulations, that doesn't necessarily put us in the dark. Organizations that leverage Earth observation technology and the easy-to-understand geospatial data they provide access to still have the technology and data. And their insights can be shared with anyone who wants to take a more active role in the climate crisis and hold companies accountable.
This is what we did in conjunction with COP29 in Baku. released A first-of-its-kind search-enhanced generative large-scale language model focused on methane. In layman's terms, this is a machine learning model that can understand and generate text in human languages, but it also bases the model on external knowledge sources, specifically terabytes of geospatial methane data from satellites and satellites. A model that uses an AI framework. We will analyze it in-house.
We combined this with the open source Methane Watch Map that we announced at COP28. This means that through an interface reminiscent of ChatGPT, anyone with an internet connection can run queries through text about methane emissions and instantly receive responses corresponding to changes in the map. These insights are available at all levels, from the region to the specific facility level. Individuals can also access an extensive inventory across various asset categories.
In addition to our efforts, climate trace and climate.gov has made an interactive map available on its website. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development also has a curated selection of open source maps through its agency. Climate Prediction and Applications Center.
One reason open access tools like this are so important is that we live in a highly volatile world, where economic, geopolitical, and technological developments are constantly conspiring to Because it's trying to distract us from one constant: the Earth is getting hotter and hotter. We cannot take for granted that particular governments will maintain this course, or indeed that the broader public will continue to play its part in tackling the climate crisis, especially in times of economic hardship. is not possible. That's why those committed to playing their part, from politicians to activists to businesspeople to media figures, are drawing our attention to the prize of averting irreversible climate change. . And environmental intelligence companies, climate technology companies, and non-governmental organizations are here to provide the data, insights, and guidance they need to do just that.
If a company wants to cut corners on methane emissions, they know they are being watched, and anyone with an internet connection can be sure to misreport their emissions, underreport their emissions, or They would do so if they knew they could prove that they did not report anything. To act whether or not under political pressure. Meanwhile, investors and shareholders can vote with their wallets and scrutinize potential investments in line with climate change.
As a result, even as governments change and disappear, political priorities rise and fall, and uncertainty abounds, we remain on the path to net zero, with one foot in the other. You will continue to put it out in front of your foot.
Antoine Rostand is president and co-founder of a global climate technology companyKairos.
