NAU team releases 13 years of detailed U.S. CO2 emissions data

New research from Northern Arizona University shows detailed CO2 emissions for the United States from 2010 to 2022.  

In the first of a series of data releases, professor Kevin Gurney of NAU’s School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems (SICCS) authored a study, published today in Scientific Data, that includes a database of 13 years of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. Future releases will include neighborhood- and city-specific emissions, road segment vehicular emissions and industrial facility emissions. 

“The U.S. taxpayers have a right to this data,” said Gurney, who specializes in atmospheric science, ecology and public policy and has spent the past two decades developing a standardized system quantifying greenhouse gas emissions. “In spite of the science funding cuts and threats to federal science data reporting, my team will continue to produce and share data critical to climate change and environmental quality. With the proposed rule to end the United States Environmental Protection Agency greenhouse gas reporting program, this data is more important than ever.” 

The goal of providing the CO2 emissions data is to give businesses, cities and communities greater insight into their emissions, driving well-informed environmental policy choices grounded in the best data.  

Gurney and his team have been developing the granular maps of CO2 emissions for two decades and the latest release is version four of the Vulcan system. Vulcan reflects every source of CO2 emissions from the combustion of coal, oil and natural gas in the United States, targeted to the time and location where fuel is burned. 

“The output constitutes many terabytes of data and requires a high-performance computing system to run,” said Pawlok Dass, a research associate in SICCS and co-investigator in the study. “It captures CO2 emissions at unprecedented resolution—down to every city block, road segment and individual factory or powerplant.” 

In The New York Times’ “Lost Science” series, Gurney acknowledged that funding cuts have had an impact on the ability to innovate and move quickly but is resolute in ensuring that the CO2 emissions data gets to the public.  

“We all remain committed to this research,” said Bilal Aslam, a Ph.D. student working on the emissions study. “Rather than ignoring or suppressing this type of climate data, policymakers should seize the opportunity to create trading markets and climate-friendly investments. We can both limit climate change and have economic growth.” 

Gurney’s Vulcan and Hestia projects, both funded by multiple federal agencies, quantify and visualize greenhouse gases emitted across the entire country down to individual power plants, neighborhoods and roadways, identifying problem areas and enabling better decisions about where to cut emissions most effectively. His estimates have shown excellent performance when compared to direct atmospheric monitoring. Gurney has authored more than 180 scientific publications, including a recent U.S. National Academy Report, “Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Decision making.” He has been involved with the United Nations Climate Change Framework Convention and the Kyoto Protocol for more than 25 years and is a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).