Google recently announced that it will release city-specific emission data in the public domain. The data will help identify the source of emissions and also enable governments to structure regulatory measures to deal with them. This is the first time that Google will be sharing aggregate transportation data (e.g. the driving, biking and transit ridership) generated from its mapping apps. In the future, users may easily be able to search for the emission data for their city using this tool. Google has indicated that it may share even more specific data with individual local governments.
The Google Environmental Insights Explorer already has the data for five cities: Buenos Aires (Argentina), Melbourne (Australia), Mountain View (United States), Pittsburgh (United States), and Victoria (Canada).
The emission data available is categorized into two types: transportation emissions and building emissions. Additionally, Google provides the potential for rooftop solar energy. The methodology underlying the data consists of the following:
“Greenhouse gas (GHG) calculations for a sector are created using activity data of emissions sources multiplied by appropriate emissions factors.
The Environmental Insights Explorer uses aggregated data from Google to derive city specific data, including distance driven by mode, the volume and type of buildings, and solar production. We then apply regional assumptions from the Climate Action for Urban Sustainability (CURB) tool — an internationally recognized third-party data source — to estimate the mix of vehicle and fuel types and the energy consumption of buildings. Finally, we apply standardized greenhouse gas emissions factors per type of vehicle, type of fuel or electricity generation.”
The limitations of the data are also noted:
“The Environmental Insights Explorer does not yet capture emissions generated by agriculture and land use, forestry, other industrial activities or waste management. This inventory is not a complete account of all emissions.”
Regulatory mechanisms to tackle emissions (for example, in the Indian context) are often put in place without adequate research-based evidence. One example is the Odd Even Scheme in Delhi, where the Delhi Government designated private vehicles as the primary source of air pollution without sufficient basis, and went on to hail the policy as a success, without adequate data to back this claim.
While the Google Explorer should not form a substitute for more nuanced scientific data, it will certainly be a useful aid for policy-making. On the flipside, in the absence of easily publicly available data, citizens can use data from Google to hold their governments accountable to some extent.
Once again, the importance of climate change awareness cannot be reiterated enough. It is only with adequate awareness levels that citizens will be able to better internalize the knowledge of their carbon footprint at the individual level, and also bear adequate caution against governments using this data to project a distorted image of the adequacy of their policies.
For example, a large proportion of the greenhouse gas emissions in developed countries can be traced to the consumption of meat (particularly meat from cattle). These emissions may not reflect in the data for an urban city, since these emissions are most prominent at the stage of cattle farming (and may reflect in satellite data in the areas where cattle farms are located). Yet the consumers in an urban city may be contributing to the green house gas emission externality through their consumption of the meat that makes its way to cities.
In developing countries, emissions from poor waste management (due to issues like non-segregation, the burning of waste, overflowing landfills, etc.) may not reflect in conventional data that focusses on transport and industry.
India Environment Blog 