At COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, former US Vice President and climate advocate Al Gore unveiled alarming new findings from the Climate Trace database, revealing secret greenhouse gas emissions from “dark vessels” – ships that disable their tracking devices. These covert emitters produce approximately 60 million tonnes of carbon annually.
“We’re seeing dark vessels that are trying to hide from regulators,” explained Gavin McCormick, co-founder of Climate Trace. “For context, about 7% of shipping emissions are now from these vessels.”
The searchable Climate Trace database, created in 2015 and involving over 100 scientific organizations, monitors emissions from 660 million sources worldwide. It highlights significant gaps in global emissions tracking, particularly in countries with unreliable or outdated inventories.
The online, searchable database tracks emissions from individual power stations, fossil-fuel extraction and production sites, manufacturing facilities, intensive livestock farms, transport hubs and mines.
It also covers waste facilities such as illegal landfills and wastewater treatment plants that release methane, and degraded forests and landscapes that have stopped absorbing carbon and are now releasing it instead.
Every country in the world is covered.
In a powerful speech, Gore criticized continued fossil fuel subsidies and dismissed reliance on unproven carbon capture technologies. Gore said the database could pinpoint where the largest and fastest emissions cuts could be achieved – if action was taken.
“They’re way better at capturing politicians than emissions,” he remarked, calling for urgent action to cut emissions at their source.
Despite challenges like Trump’s return to the presidency, Gore emphasized hope: “Economics are driving the expansion of solar, wind, and EVs. Cities, states, and companies are pushing forward.”
When Trump was president last time, the solar and wind expansion and EV expansion continued because economics are driving it – and cities, and states, and provincial governments and companies.
former US Vice President and climate advocate Al Gore
The revelations underscore the urgency for coordinated international action to tackle hidden emissions and enforce stricter regulations on polluters.
