Tech firms, AI-driven platforms step in to track GHG emissions across US

US cities and states are turning to private sector providers of detailed greenhouse gas emissions data as federal government databases go dormant or are shuttered.

Since September 2024, the science and tech startup Crosswalk Labs has been providing free and "hyperlocal" carbon emissions estimates for nearly 350 US cities in the Climate Mayors network. More than 100 cities have engaged so far to track emissions from power plants, buildings and other sources, the company reported.

Founded by scientists and a former official with the US Environmental Protection Agency, Crosswalk Labs is also conducting an emissions inventory for a Western US state.

Like other companies and organizations active in this space, including Google's Environmental Insights Explorer and Climate TRACE, Crosswalk uses unconventional data sources such as building floor space, airplane takeoffs and landings, and GPS data showing traveled vehicle miles to calculate building and transportation emissions down to a census tract, city block or single facility.

Power sector emissions data for more than 15,000 industrial plants nationwide is pulled from still-existing US government sources such as the EPA's Clean Air Markets Division inventory serving the Clean Air Act's acid rain program and the US Energy Information Administration's plant operations data.

"We seek to empower 10,000 local governments in this country," Jason Burnett, a Crosswalk co-founder and former EPA assistant deputy administrator under President George W. Bush, said during an interview. "I think that's particularly important when we have a federal administration that does not take climate change as seriously as many of us do."

Christy Lewis, product director for the nonprofit Climate TRACE, said her nearly 5-year-old coalition of AI specialists, data scientists and university researchers is expecting to hear from more US cities and states seeking to fill the gap created by disappearing government resources.

"We fully expect this to happen over the coming weeks and months," Lewis said in an email, adding that many cities and states are likely still grappling with the changes in information availability and will look for replacements soon.

Cloud computing, AI revolutionize emissions data

Machine learning makes it possible for emission trackers to extrapolate from limited datasets to calculate carbon emissions for millions of sources and across economic sectors. Crosswalk Labs, for example, collects GPS data from 27% of vehicles on the road and also uses in-roadway sensors to extrapolate to 100% of road emissions. The company's data covers more than 95% of 100 million US buildings.

Such data has always existed, but only more recently could huge amounts of information be pulled together with cloud computing, analyzed with AI and presented on a website to show detailed emissions to millions, Burnett said.

Local officials can pinpoint the source of their municipalities' climate-warming emissions over time and, for the first time, receive such data fast enough to make timely policy decisions. Crosswalk, for example, was able to release full 2024 data by the end of the first quarter of 2025, Burnett said.

Climate TRACE, which relies in part on satellites to spot emissions, releases data monthly with a 60-day lag. Google Environmental Insights Explorer, another service using Google's geospatial data and machine-learning tools, says it has the capability to estimate emissions data annually for more than 40,000 cities and regions worldwide.

Crosswalk Labs, which counts a major US bank and Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, among its corporate clients, is now in talks with two satellite providers and expects to add methane and other greenhouse gases to its data offerings later this year.

Work-arounds and tweaks

State and local officials throughout the US have for years used the EPA Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program's data on emissions from large industrial facilities, and the agency's national Inventory of US Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks report, to complement their own inventories. Access to such government information is now being curtailed.

The Trump administration has said it is reconsidering the industry reporting program and has thus far refused to publish the annual inventory that was due to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change on April 15.

Such cutbacks come as US communities with vastly different emissions profiles struggle to reduce their carbon footprints and adapt to increasingly extreme weather.

Burnett is confident his company will continue to track down emissions from any oil refinery or power plant even if important federal resources such as EPA's Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program go dark.

"If you know the other pollution levels from that plant you can back-calculate CO2," Burnett said. "We do have a work-around for that."

A number of US cities also rely on Google's well-established Environmental Insights Explorer to access local emissions data. Reno, Nevada; Boulder, Colorado; and Hartford, Connecticut, are among those that used the platform in recent years to build their inventories.

A Google spokesperson did not respond to a question about whether US demand for its services has risen in recent months.

Climate TRACE claims to be the only project worldwide with comprehensive emissions estimates for "essentially every emitting asset worldwide — over 660 million of them," according to Lewis.

The organization said it stands ready to tweak the format of its data to match national reporting standards set by the UNFCCC. If so, it could provide a US greenhouse gas inventory through March 2025, even though it acknowledges it would be difficult to match the annual EPA's report.

"The US EPA's monitoring of individual facilities was the most detailed, carefully monitored, heavily funded emissions monitoring program in the world," Lewis said. "No program can fully replace that very high level of quality."