Exclusive: New methane monitoring AI tool unveiled
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Illustration: Tiffany Herring/Axios
Environmental intelligence firm Kayrros is rolling out a large language model (LLM) to allow the public to pinpoint methane-emitting facilities, the company first told Axios.
Why it matters: The new "methane GPT" allows users to ask plain-language questions and get answers from the company's Methane Watch map for free.
- This may help further publicize information about where the powerful global warming gas is coming from and help hold polluters accountable.
Zoom in: According to Kayrros, which tracks global methane emissions, the map provides information for regions down to the facility level, including methane emissions from anywhere in the U.S.
- The new product also allows users to better understand the methane emissions from natural gas trading between countries and regions.
- Kayrros president Antoine Rostand said in a statement that the product is aimed in part at pushing back against misinformation on climate and greenhouse gas emissions, since it is user-friendly via text-based prompts.
KayrrosAI, which is technically a retrieval-augmented generation LLM, is able to decipher and generate human language text while accessing satellite data and in-house data insights from the company.
Catch up quick: While methane has a far shorter atmospheric lifetime than carbon dioxide, it's a more powerful warming agent. This makes reducing its emissions crucial to cutting near-term climate change.
Between the lines: Kayrros, aided by public and private satellites, has made tracking global methane emissions a more accurate and widely accessible task during the past few years.
- The company's data helped to show how far off course signatories were from achieving the targets set in the Global Methane Pledge in 2021.
The company is an example of a larger-scale proliferation of available data on a wide range of contributors to global warming.
- For example, a nonprofit coalition of open greenhouse gas emissions data sources called Climate TRACE is co-led by former Vice President Al Gore. It aims to be a mechanism that can identify emissions reduction opportunities.
- The organization's data can also hold countries and companies to account should they fail to live up to their emissions commitments.
What they're saying: Kayrros' Rostand said the company cares about climate literacy and is giving individuals the tools needed to hold emitters to account.
- "Public pressure can force governments and large organisations to do what is needed to prevent climate breakdown," Rostand said in a statement. "That starts with information."
