Out of This World Carbon Tracking

January 14, 2023

Out of This World Carbon Tracking

NASA provides a new way of tracking carbon from space while the first-ever NFL team resorts to carbon credits to offset air travel emissions.

As New York reveals its new plan to cap-and-invest ~$1 billion carbon credits from large emitters, Alberta prepares for a future surplus of carbon credits.

This week’s news is full of revelations. Let’s go uncover them all.

NASA’s Way of Mapping CO2

Measuring carbon emissions often use estimations only or data available at the land surface. So, they don’t really represent the actual atmospheric CO2 measurements, which is what NASA is trying to change. 

The agency's space missions, featuring its Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) 2 and 3 satellites, resulted in surprising findings. They map CO2 footprint as they orbit the Earth on various scales, from regions to continents. 

Scientists were surprised to discover that both OCO satellites were able to track CO2 emissions right at the source, even if they're not meant to do that.

This is crucial because measuring carbon at the right time and scale is key to reducing it and mitigating climate change.

How Texans Win Over Their Flight 

Sports are always fun, but they’re not always good for the environment though, especially the big-arena games like football.

The carbon footprint of the National Football League during a one-day Super Bowl event in 2005 reached 1 million tons (~900,000 metric tons of CO2). 

The air travels, both from the teams and their fans, in particular, leave behind a worrying amount of footprint. Stepping up to address this concern, the NFL's Houston Texans are buying carbon credits from oil giant Occidental Petroleum.

The football team will use the credits to offset three seasons of their flights to other cities, making them the first NFL team to do so.

New York’s Style: “Cap-and-Invest” 

New York joins the carbon credits bandwagon. But instead of following California’s cap-and-trade approach, it will implement a new Cap-and-Invest Program to help the state meet its climate targets. 

The goal is to set a cap on GHG emissions of big polluters and drive ~$1 billion in investments into New Yorkers from disadvantaged communities each year, helping them cover the costs of transitioning to cleaner energy. 

The innovative program will get inspiration from the experience of similar programs that achieved significant emissions reductions.

If widely adopted, it can be one of the most sweeping climate plans in the country’s history.

Changing The Old TIER 

While New York is working on its new carbon credits program, the Canadian province of Alberta is changing its existing emissions trading system - the Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction or TIER.

The major amendments include the creation of two new types of carbon credits: (1) “sequestration credit” and (2) “capture recognition tonne.” This move is in preparation for a potential surplus of carbon credits, courtesy of the rising carbon capture and storage (CCS) sector.

It can create 50-60 million carbon credits, which is way more than what’s expected from CCS projects under TIER. 

Carbon Fact of the Week

The 2018 Russia World Cup released 2.16 million tons of GHG, or equal to over 465,000 cars on the road for the whole year. 

The 2022 Qatar World Cup has an estimated carbon footprint of 3.6 million tons of CO2e in building 7 new stadiums, an entire new city, and 100+ new hotels and roads for the event.

Source: https://carboncredits.com/