File picture of a woman wearing a mask as she rides in Shanghai, China
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Cities in Asia and the United States emit the most heat-trapping gas that feeds climate change, with Shanghai the most polluting, according to new data that combines observations and artificial intelligence.

Seven states or provinces spew more than 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases, all of them in China, except Texas, which ranks sixth, according to new data from an organisation co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and released Friday (November 15, 2024) at the United Nations climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Nations at the talks are trying to set new targets to cut such emissions and figure out how much rich nations will pay to help the world with that task.

Using satellite and ground observations, supplemented by artificial intelligence to fill in gaps, Climate Trace sought to quantify heat-trapping carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, as well as other traditional air pollutants worldwide, including for the first time in more than 9,000 urban areas.

Earth’s total carbon dioxide and methane pollution grew 0.7% to 61.2 billion metric tons with the short-lived but extra potent methane rising 0.2%. The figures are higher than other datasets “because we have such comprehensive coverage and we have observed more emissions in more sectors than are typically available,” said Gavin McCormick, Climate Trace’s co-founder.

Shanghai leads

Shanghai’s 256 million metric tons of greenhouse gases led all cities and exceeded those from the nations of Colombia or Norway. Tokyo’s 250 million metric tons would rank in the top 40 of nations if it were a country, while New York City’s 160 million metric tons and Houston’s 150 million metric tons would be in the top 50 of countrywide emissions. Seoul, South Korea, ranks fifth among cities at 142 million metric tons.

“One of the sites in the Permian Basin in Texas is by far the No. 1 worst polluting site in the entire world,” Gore said. “And maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised by that, but I think of how dirty some of these sites are in Russia and China and so forth. But Permian Basin is putting them all in the shade.”

India among most increases

China, India, Iran, Indonesia and Russia had the biggest increases in emissions from 2022 to 2023, while Venezuela, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States had the biggest decreases in pollution.

The dataset — maintained by scientists and analysts from various groups — also looked at traditional pollutants such as carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, ammonia, sulfur dioxide and other chemicals associated with dirty air. Burning fossil fuels releases both types of pollution, Mr. Gore said.

This “represents the single biggest health threat facing humanity,” Mr. Gore said.

Mr. Gore criticised the hosting of climate talks, called COPs, by Azerbaijan, an oil nation and site of the world’s first oil wells, and by the United Arab Emirates last year.

“It’s unfortunate that the fossil fuel industry and the petrostates have seized control of the COP process to an unhealthy degree,” Mr. Gore said. “Next year in Brazil, we’ll see a change in that pattern. But, you know, it’s not good for the world community to give the No. 1 polluting industry in the world that much control over the whole process.”

Lula calls for change

Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has called for more to be done on climate change and has sought to slow deforestation since returning for a third term as president. But Brazil last year produced more oil than both Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

At a press conference Friday by the Alliance of Small Island States, it’s Chair, Cedric Schuster, said the negotiating bloc feels the need to remind everyone else why the talks matter.

“We’re here to defend the Paris agreement,” Mr. Schuster said, referring to the climate deal in 2015 to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit). “We’re concerned that countries are forgetting that protecting the world’s most vulnerable is at the core of this framework.”

General view of Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottingham, England, Sunday (Sept. 29, 2024). The U.K.’s last coal-fired power plant, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, will close, marking the end of coal-generated electricity in the nation that sparked the Industrial Revolution.
| Photo Credit: AP

Britain will become the first G7 country to end coal-fired power production on Monday (September 30, 2024) with the closure of its last plant, Uniper’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar in England’s Midlands.

It will end over 140 years of coal power in Britain.

In 2015 Britain announced plans to close coal plants within the next decade as part of wider measures to reach its climate targets. At that time almost 30% of the country’s electricity came from coal but this had fallen to just over 1% last year.

“The U.K. has proven that it is possible to phase out coal power at unprecedented speed,” said Julia Skorupska, Head of the Powering Past Coal Alliance secretariat, a group of around 60 national governments seeking to end coal power.

The drop in coal power has helped cut Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions, which have more than halved since 1990.

Britain, which has a target to reach net zero emissions by 2050, also plans to decarbonise the electricity sector by 2030, a move which will require a rapid ramp-up in renewable power such as wind and solar.

“The era of coal might be ending, but a new age of good energy jobs for our country is just beginning,” Energy Minister Michael Shanks said in an emailed statement.

Emissions from energy make up around three quarters of total greenhouse gas emissions and scientists have said that the use of fossil fuels must be curbed to meet goals set under the Paris climate agreement.

In April the G7 major industrialised countries agreed to scrap coal power in the first half of the next decade, but also gave some leeway to economies who are heavily coal-reliant, drawing criticism from green groups.

“There is a lot of work to do to ensure that both the 2035 target is met and brought forward to 2030, particularly in Japan, the U.S., and Germany,” said Christine Shearer, Research Analyst, Global Energy Monitor .

Coal power still makes up more than 25% of Germany’s electricity and more than 30% of Japan’s power.