LONDON/NEW YORK, January 11 – Carbon Tracker announces that its satellite data workstream has been spun off and operates as Energy & Clean Air Analytics Ltd (‘ECAA’), a separate entity outside Carbon Tracker.
The new structure will allow ECAA to better focus on its strengths and greater flexibility to expand its satellite imaging coverage and capability into different areas and applications, while continuing to support Carbon Tracker’s data needs.
The new entity will be led by former Power & Utilities team co-heads Matt Gray and Sriya Sundaresan.
Carbon Tracker has been expanding its satellite workstream since publishing Nowhere to Hide: using satellite imagery to estimate the utilisation of fossil fuel power plants in October 2018, using advanced machine learning techniques to process images of coal plants in regions where data is inadequate or unavailable to investors. The programme has evolved in collaboration with WattTime and with support from the Google AI Impact Challenge, to hold polluting plants accountable to environmental standards and to enable advanced new emissions reduction technologies.
Carbon Tracker will continue and expand upon its Power & Utilities programme including the Global Coal & Gas Power Economics Model (GPEM). Catharina Hillenbrand Von der Neyen, Carbon Tracker’s new Head of Company Research will become the interim Head of P&U. As the derived power plant utilisation data becomes available from ECAA, this will be used as a key input to Carbon Tracker’s ongoing work.
Jon Grayson, CEO of Carbon Tracker, said: “The satellite workstream is a pioneering endeavour that will shine the spotlight on data transparency and timely availability and hold emitters to account on the world stage. This is an exciting moment for Carbon Tracker to spin off a very specific programme that it has incubated over a number of years. I am particularly grateful to Matthew Gray for his effort in leading the Power & Utilities team over the past four years and we look forward to continuing working with the ECAA team in this important and technical area.”
Mark Campanale, Founder and Executive Chair of Carbon Tracker, said: “Decarbonising the global economy in line with the goals of the Paris climate agreement is a shared mission between Carbon Tracker and our friends at the newly established ECAA. We look forward to working with them, particularly as we share a common interest in producing high quality data. At a time when a growing number of investment institutions are setting net zero carbon targets and are looking for data to assist them, Carbon Tracker analysis and ECAA’s geospatial research will play an important role in helping investors to decarbonise, whilst also holding polluting companies to account.”
Matt Gray, Director and Co-founder of ECAA, said: “After an enjoyable 4.5 years at Carbon Tracker, I’m excited to be starting a new initiative with Sriya. There has been a lot of hype around the use of geospatial data for financial analysis. While earth observation can uniquely address several information problems in the capital markets, insights beyond the status quo require a strong commercial understanding of energy assets and the markets in which they operate. Sriya and I look forward to working with key decision-makers to use geospatial data to solve practical problems facing investors and policymakers.”
Sriya Sundaresan, Director and Co-founder of ECAA, said: “The unique opportunity we had to start this work at Carbon Tracker and now scale it under ECAA with the support of Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Quadrature Climate Foundation will certainly move us closer to our goal of a net-zero carbon economy by 2050. Matt and I look forward to working closely with others in the global analytics industry and on the ground regionally to provide solutions and pathways to feasibly achieve this. ”
Media contact:
Matthew Gray matt@energyandcleanair.org +44 7576 454155
About Carbon Tracker
The Carbon Tracker Initiative is a not-for-profit financial think tank that seeks to promote a climate-secure global energy market by aligning capital markets with climate reality. Our research to date on the carbon bubble, unburnable carbon and stranded assets has begun a new debate on how to align the financial system with the energy transition to a low carbon future. www.carbontracker.org
Carbon Tracker’s Global Gas & Coal Power Economics Model (GPEM) is a comprehensive propriety economic simulation model which covers ~95% of global operating, under construction and planned coal-fired capacity and ~75% of gas-powered capacity. GPEM data and model outputs including individual Company Profiles are publicly available.
About Energy and Clean Air Analytics (‘ECAA’)
ECAA develops cutting-edge, data-focused solutions to help organisations deliver a net-zero carbon economy by 2050. Combining advanced sensor technologies and data science with extensive energy sector expertise, ECAA supports key decision-makers in managing the wind-down of fossil fuels and the transition to net-zero carbon solutions.
