{"id":76636,"date":"2025-12-17T08:00:58","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T15:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=76636"},"modified":"2025-12-17T08:48:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T15:48:34","slug":"gurney-co2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/gurney-co2\/","title":{"rendered":"NAU\u00a0team releases 13 years of detailed U.S. CO2\u00a0emissions data\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

New research from\u00a0Northern Arizona University shows\u00a0detailed CO<\/span>2<\/span>\u00a0emissions for the United States\u00a0from\u00a02010 to 2022.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the first of a series of data releases,\u00a0professor\u00a0Kevin Gurney<\/strong>\u00a0of\u00a0NAU\u2019s\u00a0School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems\u00a0(SICCS)\u00a0authored a study, published\u00a0today\u00a0in\u00a0Scientific Data<\/a>, that includes\u00a0a\u00a0database of\u00a013\u00a0years of\u00a0carbon dioxide emissions\u00a0in the United States.\u00a0Future releases\u00a0will include\u00a0neighborhood-\u00a0and city-specific emissions,\u00a0road segment vehicular\u00a0emissions\u00a0and\u00a0industrial facility emissions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. taxpayers have a right to this data,\u201d said Gurney, who\u00a0specializes in atmospheric science, ecology and public policy\u00a0and\u00a0has spent the past two decades developing a standardized system quantifying greenhouse gas\u00a0emissions.\u00a0\u201cIn spite of the science funding cuts and threats to\u00a0federal science\u00a0data reporting, my team will continue to produce and share data critical to climate change and environmental quality.\u00a0With the proposed\u00a0<\/span>rule<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to end the United States Environmental Protection Agency greenhouse gas reporting program, this data is more important than ever.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The goal of providing\u00a0the CO<\/span>2<\/span> 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. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gurney and his team\u00a0have been developing the\u00a0granular\u00a0maps of CO<\/span>2<\/span> emissions for two decades and the latest release is version four of the Vulcan<\/a> system. Vulcan reflects<\/span>\u00a0every source of\u00a0CO<\/span>2<\/span>\u00a0emissions from the combustion of coal, oil and natural gas in the\u00a0United States, targeted to the time and location where fuel\u00a0is burned.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe output constitutes many terabytes of data and requires a high-performance computing system to\u00a0run,\u201d said\u00a0Pawlok\u00a0Dass<\/strong>,\u00a0a research associate in SICCS and\u00a0co-investigator\u00a0in the study.\u00a0\u201cIt captures CO<\/span>2<\/span> emissions\u00a0at unprecedented resolution\u2014down to every city block, road segment and individual factory or power plant.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In\u00a0The New York Times\u2019\u00a0\u201c<\/span>Lost Science<\/span><\/a>\u201d series, Gurney\u00a0acknowledged\u00a0that funding cuts have had an impact on the ability to innovate and move\u00a0quickly\u00a0but\u00a0is resolute in ensuring that the CO<\/span>2<\/span>\u00a0emissions data gets\u00a0to the public.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe all remain committed to this research,\u201d said Bilal Aslam<\/strong>, a Ph.D. student working on the emissions study.\u00a0\u201cRather than ignoring or suppressing this type of\u00a0climate\u00a0data, policymakers should seize the opportunity to\u00a0create trading markets and\u00a0climate-friendly\u00a0investments. We can both limit climate change and have economic growth.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gurney\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Vulcan<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Hestia<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>project<\/span>s,\u00a0both\u00a0funded by multiple federal agencies<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>quantify\u00a0and visualize greenhouse gases emitted across the entire country\u00a0down\u00a0to individual power plants, neighborhoods and roadways,\u00a0identifying\u00a0problem areas and enabling better decisions about where to cut emissions most effectively. His estimates have shown excellent performance when compared to direct atmospheric monitoring.\u00a0<\/span>Gurney<\/span><\/a>\u00a0has authored\u00a0more than\u00a0180 scientific publications,\u00a0including a recent U.S.\u00a0National Academy Report,\u00a0\u201cGreenhouse Gas Emissions for\u00a0Decision\u00a0making.\u201d\u00a0He has been involved with the United Nations Climate Change Framework Convention and the Kyoto Protocol for\u00a0more than\u00a025 years\u00a0and is a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New research from\u00a0Northern Arizona University shows\u00a0detailed CO2\u00a0emissions for the United States\u00a0from\u00a02010 to 2022.\u00a0\u00a0 In the first of a series of data releases,\u00a0professor\u00a0Kevin Gurney\u00a0of\u00a0NAU\u2019s\u00a0School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems\u00a0(SICCS)\u00a0authored a study, published\u00a0today\u00a0in\u00a0Scientific Data, that includes\u00a0a\u00a0database of\u00a013\u00a0years of\u00a0carbon dioxide emissions\u00a0in the United States.\u00a0Future releases\u00a0will include\u00a0neighborhood-\u00a0and city-specific emissions,\u00a0road segment vehicular\u00a0emissions\u00a0and\u00a0industrial facility emissions.\u00a0 \u201cThe U.S. taxpayers have a…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":76637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}