Urban Emissions Gap: NAU Study Finds Climate TRACE Underestimates City CO2 by 70%

A Northern Arizona University-led study comparing Climate TRACE’s onroad vehicle CO2 estimates with the Vulcan dataset found Climate TRACE undercounts urban emissions by about 70% on average across 260 U.S. cities, with some cities undercounted by over 90%. The results raise concerns about the accuracy of AI-derived climate data and underscore the need for guardrails, transparency, and cross-validation to inform policy decisions.