Monitoring carbon emissions to achieve net-zero future

Deng Zhu, a current Ph.D. graduate at Tsinghua University’s Department of Earth System Science, has been working on tracking the dynamics and patterns of global CO2 emissions from human activities. 

Deng Zhu, as the Best Paper Award winner, addressed the Award Ceremony of the Global Youth Summit on Net-Zero Future

Deng has authored around 20 academic publications, including some in high profile journals like Nature Communications and Nature Geoscience.

The international research team he participated in, called the Carbon Monitor, has been trying to estimate the global anthropogenic CO2 emissions at a daily interval in near-real-time. By monitoring the latest changes in CO2 emissions, the gap between current efforts and the need to achieve climate targets can be continuously updated. Until not long ago, the estimation of CO2 emission was based on an annual basis and had a time lag of more than one year. As climate change worsens, it has become vital to have timely data, based on which an effective and timely response could be put into effect to address the problems arising from climate change. And this is where his research project comes in. 

Deng and his Carbon Monitor team use a combination  of high-frequency statistics, geolocation data, statellite imagery, and advanced algorithms, to track daily activity levels and emissions in major sectors, such as power, industry, and transportation. They have taken the lead in near-real-time CO2 emission monitoring, providing data to GCP, WMO, UNEP, and other research institutions. 

Deng Zhu presented his Carbon Monitor research on the 2021 Sino-American Youth Dialogue

Deng was a student of remote sensing and geographic information science during his undergraduate studies. Then he joined Tsinghua six years ago for a master’s degree, majoring in earth system science. 

Although interdisciplinary studies are complex, Deng says such studies have broader implications. As an interdisciplinary subject, earth science links marine, land, gases, geography, and everything about the globe. 

Deng Zhu and his team won the golden award on the 10th Tsinghua University Innovation Contest

Currently, he and his colleagues are working on using satellite data to study trends in carbon emissions, hoping to find possible applications for verifying their current estimations. At the same time, he hopes everyone can play their part in combating climate change as small actions can make a big difference. 

"Paying attention to greenhouse gas emissions is more than necessary. Efforts like choosing greens, planting more trees, reducing the use of air conditioners, and adopting more ecologically friendly transportation means will help us and, more importantly, our decedents too," he adds.

He acknowledges that it took a while for him to realize the gravity of climate change. "Upon coming to Tsinghua, as I started to systematically study the implications of climate change, I realized how serious and complex the problem was," says he. That very realization was what motivated him to design his major on the carbon emissions monitoring research. 

Deng Zhu participates in an investigation in Indonesia

"For the climate issues, scientists seem to be one of the most important forces, but it doesn’t mean others have no role," he says. "We need everyone’s acknowledgment and determination to solve this problem altogether."

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TsinghuaRen | Monitoring carbon emissions to achieve net-zero future  

Writer: Natasha

Editors: Liu Shutian, Sangeet Sangroula

Designer: Xia Yifei