Game-Changer Direct Measure of GHG Emissions Take Tamale Ghana to Zero Carbon
- PEM Team Member, MIT Climate CoLab Contest
- Proposal for The Smart Zero Carbon Cities Challenge
- 2016 by Game-Changers-Ghana
Pitch
Testing the Paris Agreement with ecological, economic & social mechanisms to “zero-out” emissions in future model city: Tamale Ghana
Description
“Game-Changers in 1st Zero-Carbon City in Africa: Tamale, Ghana” has a novel, game-changing 14CO2 measurement technology, Ghanaian and international team members, potential financing, specific economic, environmental and humanitarian actions plus an extensive social network in place.
Our proposal tests implementation of the 2015 U.N. Paris Agreement’s articles, that while articulated in the agreement are vague, to build detailed strategies for how countries and the world can deal with climate change. We propose a pilot program for greenhouse gas (GHG) measurement and emissions reduction across Tamale and the surrounding area based on direct monitoring verification and accounting (MVA) for fossil fuel CO2 (ff-CO2) employing novel field–ready analyzers. The CO2 field analyses (e.g., 12,13,14CO2), related GHG analyses (e.g., CH4, N2O) and emissions management will enable a 1st zero-carbon city, Tamale, Ghana, which is among the fastest growing cities in West Africa. The project time frame is 30 years to capture weekly, monthly and yearly trends.
A social media platform linking stakeholders will be developed with and by Ghanaian end-users who will receive real-time data about their environment. Reducing emissions based on real-time GHG analysis and management actions within Tamale and environs will include: renewable energy expansion, water and waste management, increasing carbon sequestration strength through restoration of native vegetation and developing carbon-neutral farming practices to provide high-quality nutrition for the area. Tamale will be a model for African cities and show how low-income cities can develop and prosper in the 21st century to the benefit of present and future generations.
The mechanisms, their counterparts in the Paris Agreement and a project architecture based on a virtuous cycle are detailed below.
Our first step in reaching individuals is to socialize the concept of fossil fuel CO2 and the carbon cycle (Fig.1; www.pemforest.com).
PEM TECHNOLOGY
14CO2 PORTABLE ANALYZER
Planetary Emissions Management Inc. is pursuing new and emerging technologies for high precision determination of 14CO2 in a portable analyzer. High frequency and high precision data for 14CO2 are required to track, analyze, manage and monetize fossil fuel derived CO2 in the biosphere. Humanities perturbation to the climate system cannot be fully understood, managed or monetized without increased data for 14CO2. New 14CO2 data for diverse ecosystems, including the soil carbon pool, are likely to yield a better understanding of their response to changing climate.
GLOBAL MONITOR PLATFORM
The Global Monitor Platform (GMP) is a multi-isotopic integrated field measurement platform. The GMP components may include commercial 12C and 13C analyzers for CO2 and experimental field analyzer modules for 14CO2. The GMP can be configured to include CH4, N2O and their isotopic species available from commercial vendors. The GMP enables direct measurement of GHG’s across diverse project types, small and large. When coupled with well developed field methods to determine GHG fluxes, PEM provides commercially available comprehensive data for GHG budgets and verification of fossil-fuel emission reduction reporting. The GMP can be deployed to detect fraud in fossil-fuel emission reduction claims.
SYSTEM OF SYSTEMS NETWORK
The System of Systems (SoS) network consists of GMP sensor nodes across the geographical boundaries of a project site. The SoS is designed to monitor net carbon flux at local-to-regional scales, produce automated reports, respond to remote commands and result in verified data for carbon financial instruments. Carbon standards and third party verification are employed at multiple scales to ensure harmonization of data and carbon financial instruments across analyzers in one or multiple networks.
OUR COLLABORATORS HAVE INCLUDED:
