BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Cities in Asia and the United States emit the most heat-trapping gas that fuels climate change, with Shanghai the most polluting, according to new data combining observations and artificial intelligence.

Nations at the UN climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan try to set new targets to reduce such emissions and realize how much the rich nations will pay to help the world with this task. The data comes as climate officials and activists alike grow increasingly frustrated with what they see as the failure of talks — and the world — to curb planet-warming fossil fuels and the countries and companies that promote them.

Seven states or provinces emit more than 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases, all in China except for Texas, which ranks sixth, according to new data from an organization co-founded by former US Vice President Al Gore and released Friday at COP29. .

Using satellite and ground-based observations, supplemented by artificial intelligence to fill in the gaps, Climate Trace sought to quantify heat-trapping carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, as well as other traditional air pollutants around the world, including for for the first time in over 9,000 urban homes. areas.

Earth’s total carbon dioxide and methane pollution rose 0.7 percent to 61.2 billion metric tons, short-lived but highly potent methane rose 0.2 percent. The numbers are higher than other datasets “because we have such comprehensive coverage and we’ve seen more emissions in more sectors than are typically available,” said Gavin McCormick, co-founder of Climate Trace.

Many large cities emit much more than some nations

Shanghai’s 256 million metric tons of greenhouse gases led all cities and surpassed those of the nations of Colombia or Norway. Tokyo’s 250 million metric tons would rank in the top 40 nations if it were a country, while New York City’s 160 million metric tons and Houston’s 150 million metric tons would in the top 50 shows nationally. Seoul, South Korea ranks fifth among cities with 142 million metric tons.

“One of the sites in the Permian Basin in Texas is by far the No. 1 worst polluter in the world,” Gore said. “And maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised by that, but I think about how dirty some of these sites are in Russia and China and so on. But the Permian Basin puts them all in the shade.”

China, India, Iran, Indonesia and Russia had the largest emissions increases from 2022 to 2023, while Venezuela, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and United States of America had the largest decreases in pollution.

The dataset – maintained by scientists and analysts from various groups – also looked at traditional pollutants such as carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, ammonia, sulfur dioxide and other chemicals associated with dirty air. Burning fossil fuels releases both types of pollution, Gore said.

It “represents the greatest health threat facing humanity,” Gore said.

Climate talks are battling fossil fuel interests

Gore criticized the hosting of climate talks, called the COP, by Azerbaijan, an oil nation and home to the world’s first oil wells, and the United Arab Emirates last year.

“It is unfortunate that the fossil fuel industry and petrostates have taken control of the COP process to an unhealthy degree,” Gore said. “Next year in Brazil we will see a change in this pattern. But, you know, it’s not good for the world community to give the world’s No. 1 polluting industry so much control over the whole process.”

Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has called for more to be done about climate change and has tried to slow deforestation since returning for a third term as president. But Brazil produced more oil last year than Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates, according to the report US Energy Information Administration.

On Friday, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former UN climate chief Christina Figueres and leading climate scientists released a letter calling for “an urgent review” of climate talks.

The letter said “the global climate process has been captured and is no longer fit for purpose,” in response to Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, saying oil and gas were a “gift from the gods.”

An analysis by the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition said on Friday that the official attendance list for the talks included at least 1,770 fossil fuel lobbyists.

At a news conference with the president of the small island nation, Cedric Schuster, he said the negotiating bloc felt the need to remind everyone why the talks matter.

“We’re here to defend the Paris agreement,” Schuster said, referring to the 2015 climate accord to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit). “We are concerned that countries are forgetting that protecting the world’s most vulnerable is at the heart of this framework.” ___

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