Tag: climate change

  • How to make climate reporting fun

    How to make climate reporting fun

    As part of the Paris agreement each country is estimating the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. The emissions are then reported to the UN. Think of it like tax time for emissions. The idea is to track and reduce emissions over time. How do countries estimate yearly emissions? Today, a mix of sensor data, survey results, and expert options are used to create an inventory. For the agriculture, forest, and land use sector there are tools to help with this process.

    One of these tools has been developed by climate scientists. It is very well thought out, has incredible features, and allows for maximum flexibility. The catch? It is very hard to use. So we started an experiment: What if we added a user experience expert to the mix and redesigned this as a modern, web-based app?

    To make apps user friendly we start by learning from end users: Who are our users? What data do they have? What are their biggest roadblocks? The wealth of information we get from end users is always humbling. We summarized our insights into three lessons:

    Lesson 1: Guidance: Often inventory teams don’t have enough time and resources to read the complex guidelines provided by the UN.

    How do we guide our users? In depth familiarity with the guidelines is great but not necessary to use our app. It guides compilers through the inventory process and points to specific sections in the guidelines to learn more.

    Lesson 2: Flexible usage. Some teams estimate just one source, while others estimate all sources.

    How do we design for flexibility? We let users choose what they want to do and adapt the experience to their needs. Part of this is approach is to only ask for data if and when they are needed. An advantage is that we are avoiding bottlenecks by not asking for data they might not have.

    Lesson 3: Adjusting complexity. Some compilers have basic datasets with gaps, others have very complex datasets.

    How do we design for different inputs and estimation methods? We ask users what kind of data they have and then tailor the experience to their personal needs. Rather than a static interface, this app guides the compiler through the process. Users view personalized pages based on the complexity of their dataset.

    Screenshot

    How do we make sure this is what users need?

    We started with high level prototypes and constantly iterated to make them better and more accurate. Weekly expert reviews and collaborative design sessions helped with constant improvements. Once the developers had created a working app, we tested it with users. The results were mind blowing:

    • Intuitive: Our test users completed the emission estimation on their own, without any training or help.
    • Easy to use: Our test users entered simple datasets as well as for complex datasets. They navigated the app easily and compared results for the different methods.
    • Fun: This is maybe not the first word that comes to mind when thinking of compiling an inventory, but our test users had fun! They enjoyed seeing graphs, playing with real-time emission results, and tweaking inputs to study the results.

    Where do we go from here? The app is still in development, and we hope to overcome obstacles along the way. Our goal is to roll this out to make climate reporting easier, faster and more accurate.

  • The Road to Net Zero: Detecting and Measuring Emissions

    The Road to Net Zero: Detecting and Measuring Emissions

    Grab your hat and mittens, it’s going to be cold outside. Imagine going for a walk on a sunny winter day while your lungs fill with cold and crispy air. This week’s climate story brings us up north, to Canada.

    We have been introducing many amazing organizations from around the world that develop solutions towards a low carbon future. Today we are highlighting the Montreal based startup GHGSat.

    Countries, cities and organizations have been setting targets for a low carbon future. In order to meet these targets, we need to understand where and what type of emissions occur. Today we measure emissions through reporting, earth based sensors, and satellite based sensors. Back to our story of GHGSat in Montreal. While other satellites measure carbon dioxide emissions GHGSat develops satellites to detect methane emissions. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas:

    Over the course of a century, methane has 34 times the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide.

    https://drawdown.org/solutions/landfill-methane-capture

    Some of the biggest sources of methane emissions are coal mining, gas and oil extraction, landfills, and livestock. To get to a low carbon future we need to avoid methane emissions. Where we can’t avoid them we need to capture them. To better understand operational emissions and accidental leaks GHGSat has developed high resolution mapping of methane emissions. This is how it works:

    GHGSat detects and measures emissions from industrial sites across the globe. While the satellite orbits the earth spectrometers measure gas concentrations and provide high resolution heat maps of human caused emissions.

    Their progress since launching their first satellite in 2016 has been amazing. The high resolution images are getting more and more detailed. Where they detected methane emissions from a coal mine before, they can now map emissions to individual vents.

    What I like most is GHGSat’s bold vision to become the global reference for remote sensing of greenhouse gas emissions from any source in the world.

    It is inspiring to see how startups all over the world tackle climate change. From drone startups to cultivating seaweed. GHGSat is another example of an amazingly dedicated group of people addressing climate change.

  • What Do Solar Panels and TVs Have in Common?

    What Do Solar Panels and TVs Have in Common?

    Remember the scene in “Back to the Future” about TVs? Marty, traveling back in time from the 1980is to the 1950is, tells Stella they have two TVs at home. Stella answers: “Oh honey, he is teasing you. Nobody in the world has two television sets”.

    This is how I felt after seeing a slide about solar adoption at the California Germany Bilateral Energy Conference. David Hochschild, chair of the California Energy Commission, gave an optimistic and inspiring keynote on clean energy in California.

    He covered a range of clean energy highlights: Tesla’s Gigafactory developing the world’s largest factory for energy storage. Apple’s new solar roof, which is one of the biggest in the world and helps Apple being powered entirely by renewable energy. Another highlight is the Geysers, the world’s largest geothermal field with 22 geothermal power plants. It’s encouraging to hear about all these clean energy projects in California. What inspired me most from David’s talk was this slide:

    Source: EIA Annual Energy Outlook 2004-2017, EIA Electric Power Monthly July 25, 2017

    The plot shows a prediction for solar adoption from the US Energy Information Administration. The dotted line shows their estimation for US Solar photovoltaics generation and the solid line shows what actually happened.

    What does solar adoption have to do with climate change? The power sector accounts for 40% of annual greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere. By using energy from renewable sources such as solar we can cut emissions drastically.

    Isn’t that amazing? Prediction of solar adoption is incredibly low in comparison to what actually happened over the last decade. What I like most about this graph is that it gives me hope we might be underrating other climate solutions as well. As we are getting cheaper and more efficient clean energy options every month, what’s next?