Scalable Tracking of CO2 Emissions : A Global Analysis with Satellite Data

This paper extends recent research on satellite-based carbon dioxide measurement to an easilyupdated template for tracking changes in carbon dioxide concentrations at local and regional scales. Using data fromthe National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 satellite platform and a large sampleof urban areas, a comparison of trend estimation models suggests that the template can use a simple model thatestimates trends directly from satellite data pre-filtered to isolate local concentration anomalies. Illustrativeapplications are developed for a long-period trend model and a short-period model focused on change in the most recentyear. In addition, the paper estimates carbon dioxide emissions for thousands of urban areas and identifies citieswhose emissions performance is above or below expectation. Although the tracking model is “simple,” it requiressoftware and hardware that are beyond the means of many interested stakeholders. For this reason, the World Bank’sDevelopment Economics Vice Presidency has established an open web facility that pre-filters data from the NationalAeronautics and Space Administration’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2satellite and publishes monthly meanconcentration anomalies for all terrestrial cells of a 25-kilometer global grid. The website will also publishannual carbon dioxide tracking reports for urban areas and provide information that links the 25-kilometer global gridcell IDs to IDs for urban areas and national administrative units (levels 0, 1, and 2).