In October 2019, Google launched Environmental Insights Explorer (EIE) in Europe, a free online tool, designed in collaboration with Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy which uses data to help fight climate change. Using the tech giant’s exhaustive global mapping data to gauge and reduce carbon emissions and measure renewable energy potential across cities, EIE was initially made available in Dublin, Birmingham and Manchester.
Project Activities
Dublin is a strategic partner, along with UCD, in the roll-out of this initiative working with the Google Insights team in the US.
EIE is now accessible in 18 cities across Europe, 53 cities worldwide, illustrating Google’s stated mission to organise the world’s information and to make it universally accessible and useful.
Calculating the greenhouse gas (GHG) baseline of a city is an important first step for climate action planning, as it can be used to measure progress and for prioritising investment in the areas where it will have the most impact.
EIE offers three main GHG indicators for a city : the measurement of emissions from transportation and buildings, the potential for rooftop solar energy production, as well as 20 year climate projections. Regional assumptions, estimating the mix of vehicle and fuel types and energy consumption of buildings are applied using the Climate Action for Urban Sustainability (CURB) free interactive scenario planning tool, developed by the World Bank.
Impact
The wealth of information provided by this tool will enable policy makers to make better, data-driven decisions, while also allowing citizens and researchers access to high-quality environmental information relating to the city region.
Check out the data relating to your community below: