Carbon Impacts Tracer links CO2 emissions to concrete environmental and economic harms
theguardian.comThe Carbon Impacts Tracer, built by researchers at Australian National University and partners, converts CO2 emissions from any project, company, or state into estimated real-world effects. It uses the Transient Climate Response to CO2 Emissions metric and peer-reviewed studies to show outcomes such as lost food production, heat exposure, glacier loss, and coral mortality. The tool is aimed at making abstract tonnage figures meaningful for the public and for legal cases. Example from the Hunter Valley Operations coal mine in New South Wales: 809 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent would expose nearly half a million people to unprecedented heat and kill around 15 million coral colonies per bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef. The developers of the tool say it can refute the argument that a single project's emissions are too small to measure. The NSW planning commission is expected to rule on the mine this week.
