Climate Trace - Pollution Plumes

Climate TRACE has developed a global air emissions dataset that provides unprecedented transparency into greenhouse gas (GHG) and non-GHG emissions. To further illuminate the direct impacts of air pollution, Climate TRACE has released plumes data and a web-based tool to visualize this data. This new platform moves beyond annual inventories to provide a current, intuitive look at how harmful particulate matter (PM2.5) from major industrial sources travels and disperses, empowering communities, policymakers, and journalists to connect specific sources of pollution to local air quality.

The web-base tool covers over 9,500 PM2.5 point-sources located in urban areas and expose a disproportionate number of people to PM 2.5 - 1.6 billion people live within 10km of these sources. Many of these are ‘super-emitters’ that are among the top 10% of all PM2.5 sources in the Climate TRACE database and expose 900 million people to pollution.