World’s top polluting cities unveiled by Al Gore, Climate TRACE at COP29

[Jack Aylmer]

DURING THE U.N.’S ANNUAL COP29 CLIMATE SUMMIT, EXPERTS REVEALED THE WORLD’S BIGGEST POLLUTING CITIES.

THE DATA COMES FROM CLIMATE TRACE-

AN ORGANIZATION CO-FOUNDED BY FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE.

“With a coalition of 12 members, and we have more than 100 contributors. 1000s of people are working to make Climate Trace more and more effective every single month.”

THEY USED SATELLITE AND GROUND OBSERVATIONS, SUPPLEMENTED BY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, TO QUANTIFY AIR POLLUTANTS WORLDWIDE.

ACCORDING TO CLIMATE TRACE-

SHANGHAI RANKS AS THE PLANET’S TOP POLLUTING CITY-

GENERATING AN EMISSIONS OUTPUT THAT EXCEEDS THOSE OF COLUMBIA OR NORWAY.

IN SECOND PLACE IS TOKYO-

CREATING ENOUGH GREENHOUSE GASSES THAT IF IT WERE A COUNTRY, THE CITY WOULD RANK AMONG THE TOP 40 MOST POLLUTING NATIONS.

ROUNDING OUT THE TOP FIVE ARE NEW YORK, HOUSTON AND SEOUL-

WHICH ARE EACH RESPONSIBLE FOR MORE THAN 140 MILLION METRIC TONS OF AIR POLLUTION.

CLIMATE TRACE SAYS THEIR FINDINGS OFFER A MORE COMPREHENSIVE PICTURE ON THE WORLD’S AIR POLLUTION PROBLEM-

BECAUSE THEY’RE ABLE TO OBSERVE MORE EMISSIONS IN A GREATER NUMBER OF SECTORS THAN ARE TYPICALLY AVAILABLE.

THE DATASET WILL BE MAINTAINED BY SCIENTISTS AND ANALYSTS FROM VARIOUS GROUPS-

TRACKING A PROBLEM THAT GORE CLAIMS REPRESENTS THE SINGLE BIGGEST HEALTH THREAT FACING HUMANITY.

FOR STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS, I’M JACK AYLMER.