Descarbonários| What Is Our Carbon Footprint?
What Is Our Carbon Footprint?
DATA-C Project
Summary
The release of carbon into the atmosphere is a major factor in global warming. Today we have a lot of data about emission of greenhouse gases (GHG), but few understand what this data means and what to do with the information. We, the Descarbonários, created a solution in order to popularize this information. We believe that information brings awareness and responsibility, we want a conscious and responsible humanity so that it can take care and enjoy the Planet.
How We Addressed This Challenge
Projections of the future climate show that significant climatic impacts have already occurred with the increase of 1.5°C in the next decades associated with the increase in emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) by anthropogenic actions (IPCC, 2018). The main effects of these changes are modifications in the frequency and intensity of extreme events, with consequences for the economy and human health (IPCC, 2018). According to data from the fifth evaluation report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in the last 150 years industrial activities have been responsible for the increase from 280 ppm to 414 ppm in carbon dioxide levels. In 2018, Brazil ranked seventh in the ranking of countries that emit the most greenhouse gases in the world. According to data updated by the Climate Laboratory (2018), agriculture is among the sectors responsible for the large release of GHG.
DATA-C Project is a responsive web platform for mobile devices, which was developed to identify and estimate carbon emissions according to each human activity, such as transport (plane, car and bus), industry and land use (agriculture and livestock) in a given region, in addition to pointing out possible locations for offsetting these emissions. The importance of this project is to inform the user about the carbon footprint of activities with potential for GHG emissions and places with potential carbon sink, being of great value for both scientists and political managers, civil society and private institutions, allowing them to managers plan carbon offset policies more targeted at potential polluters.
The platform uses data from NASA and its partners to feed the GHG layers, standardized in CO2 equivalent (CO2eq) through equations well established by the scientific community, and other public domain databases with information on the location of different sectors that are potential polluters (such as industry, transport and land use). Thus, the platform will transform/translate, through maps, infographics and quick texts, information, which is often difficult for people to access and understand.
The scope of this project occurs in different spheres. For the government, it will support three pillars:
1. Transparency: The platform provides a diagnostic of the carbon footprint of government initiatives (projects, events, public policies, etc.), serving as an instrument for decision making for more sustainable management. At the end of each public management cycle, we will be clear about the contribution of this management to the reduction of the carbon footprint. It would also be interesting to sign a managers' commitment to NASA to use the data for carbon neutrality;
2. Local mapping: From the crossing of data, the public manager will provide information on public spaces (green parks, marine parks), created as carbon sinks, to be used by civil society and private initiative;
3. Green incentive: The government will encourage companies with potentially polluting activities through benefits, such as priority in bidding.
For scientists, it will allow the generation of secondary data to understand and identify the carbon footprint issues regionally, assessing potential emitters. For private initiative and/or potential polluters it will allow the establishment of reduction or compensation targets. In addition, a system for notification of high-emission alerts will open forums for dialogue between scientists, managers and the private sector, innovating in decision-making with a scientific basis and transparency. This information will be open to the population's access, to understand what is happening around them and in other places of the planet, and to be able to inspect if the actions taken by the governments are generating results. Thus, it is expected that more public policies will be created and more effectively.
How We Developed This Project
We, the Descarbonários, chose the challenge “What is your carbon footprint?” inspired by the trajectory of Alfredo Sirkis, journalist and writer with a marked role in the fight for the protection of the environment, and for understanding the urgency of actions to reduce global warming and mitigate the effects of climate change. Our approach to developing the project was to transform technical data into accessible information for different actors, such as scientists, public managers, private initiative and for ordinary citizens, allowing greater interaction between the parties to support decision making and public policy formulation for carbon neutrality in a given region.
When registering, the user can access a discussion forum in which representatives of the private sector, public managers and scientists can, together, create solutions in favor of carbon neutrality. In this sense the C-Stamp was created to encourage the reduction or compensation of GHGs, through benefits, such as priority in biddings.
We opted for a web page with responsiveness for mobile devices, as we understand that a web page will be able to facilitate access for everyone since the mobile device applications require the user to have space on the device to download, in addition to being careful with operation in different operating systems (Android, IOS, Windows Phone). The page will be developed in VS Code, using HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, the code will be available in a github repository and the page will be published in github pages.
We consider it an achievement to realize that the DATA-C Project, in addition to facilitating access to technical information by ordinary people, also has the potential to promote dialogue between public managers, private initiative and scientists.
How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project
On the DATA-C platform, we used data from NASA and NASA partners to feed the layers (platform tabs), as follows: By identifying in real time the emissions of carbon dioxide and atmospheric carbon, we used the OCO-2 XCO2 and OCO-3 XCO2 data (NASA); For measurements of greenhouse gases, TROPOMI (NASA), Landsatlook (USGS) and ODIAC (NASA) were used. Landsatlook was used to use images to link the highest GHG values seen from space to local sources; In the crossings of data on population, economic development and changes caused by disturbances in the energy supply, Suomi-NPP VIIRS (NASA) was chosen; For the historical record in the US of annual road transport emissions, the DARTE US Traffic Emissions (NASA) was used and for the historical methane emissions, the Gridded 2012 Methane Data (EPA) was used; MODIS Active Fire (NASA) was used to show fires in 1 km pixels in real time; For satellite data in terrestrial, marine, atmospheric, snow and sea ice fields, water cycle and climate, the G-Portal (JAXA) was consulted; Information from historical carbon monoxide emission records was obtained from MOPITT (CSA); For carbon trace gases and for being able to capture a wide variety of carbon-containing molecules, SCISAT (CSA) was used. These data served as a back-end for the integration of the front-end, making it possible to carry out emissions surveys directed to countries, states, cities or regions.
Data & Resources
OCO-3 Science Team/Michael Gunson, Annmarie Eldering (2020), OCO-3 Level 2 geolocated XCO2 retrievals results, physical model VEarly, Greenbelt, MD, USA, Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC), Accessed: [03/10/2020], https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datacollection/OCO3_L2_Standard_Early.html.
EPA. Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data. Available in em: <https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data>. Acessed: 03 out 2020.
NASA. NASA's AIRS Maps Carbon Monoxide from Brazil Fires. Available in: <https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasas-airs-maps-carbon-monoxide-from-brazil-fires>. Acessed: 03 out 2020.
NASA. Global climate change: Causes. Available in: <https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/>. Acessed: 03 out 2020.
REDAÇÃO GALILEU. Agronegócio segue como maior emissor de gases de efeito estufa no Brasil. Galileu, 2018. Available in:<https://revistagalileu.globo.com/galileu-e-o-clima/noticia/2018/11/agronegocio-segue-como-maior-emissor-de-gases-de-efeito-estufa-no-brasil.html>. Acessed: 03 out 2020.
FUNDAÇÃO GETÚLIO VARGAS. Programa Brasileiro GHG Protocol: Inventários. Available in: <https://www.ghgprotocolbrasil.com.br/inventarios?locale=pt-br>. Acessed: 03 out 2020.
PBMC, 2016: Mudanças Climáticas e Cidades. Relatório Especial do Painel Brasileiro de Mudanças Climáticas [Ribeiro, S.K., Santos, A.S. (Eds.)]. PBMC, COPPE – UFRJ. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. 116p. ISBN: 978-85-285-0344-9.
SALVADOR, Prefeitura Municipal de. Plano de Mitigação e Adaptação às Mudanças do Clima em Salvador: Inventário de emissões de gases de efeito estufa (GEE) do município de Salvador. Salvador, 2020. .
INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE. Summary for Policymakers. Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. 2014.