How accurate are CARMA’s CO2 emissions estimates?
CARMA uses a statistical model that predicts CO2 emissions given the size, age, fuel type, estimated capacity utilization, and engineering specifications of individual plants. We have verified that these plant characteristics predict actual emissions with high accuracy, using officially-reported emissions from thousands of power plants in the US, Canada, the European Union and India. For the thousands of plants that have reported emissions, we replace the model’s estimates with the official figures. We have also performed two accuracy checks at the country level. For power production, we have compared CARMA’s total power production in each country with the total reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. For CO2 emissions from the power sector, we have compared CARMA’s total emissions in each country with the total reported by the World Resources Institute. In both cases, the correlation is 99%. CARMA is meant to be a repository of the best available information on power s
