Image: Trevor Harris ( CC BY-SA 2.0 )
What it is
Climate TRACE is a coalition that publishes a global greenhouse-gas inventory from satellites, sensors, and machine learning rather than from self-reports alone. Release v5.10.0 (27 August 2026) added June 2026 monthly data and a new net-soil-organic-carbon subsector. Preliminary first-half 2026 emissions were 29.7 billion tonnes CO₂e, 0.2 percent (56.4 million tonnes) above the first half of 2025. Road transport drove most of the rise; power and manufacturing declined slightly on TRACE’s books. At COP30 in Brazil (November 2025) the coalition released a Solutions map that estimates how much each tracked source could cut with mature, commercial actions: a neighbor to this site’s Solutions waste shelf and to the AMP sorting card, not a replacement for either.
Problem it targets
Inventories disagree. Methane leaks from oil, gas, and coal are often higher than reported. You cannot manage what you refuse to measure.
How it works
Models learn the look of a power plant, a feedlot, or a flare and estimate activity and emission factors, then fuse that with atmospheric retrievals where they exist. Every number has uncertainty. A bright pixel is a clue, not a court verdict. Revisions to history are expected when methods change.
Status and players
Climate TRACE coalition (listed on the About page: research labs, non-profits, and Al Gore among the named members); related public systems include GHGSat and Carbon Mapper. National inventories remain the legal baseline.
Risks and limits
False plumes, political blowback, and treating a dashboard as enforcement. Satellites see some sectors better than others. v5.10 is one monthly vintage.
Sources
Climate TRACE v5.10 news note (27 Aug 2026); About page for the COP30 Solutions tool (Nov 2025). A bright pixel is a clue, not a court verdict.