Many of the most pressing environmental challenges we face are hard to understand or are obscured by bias. Environmental Capital Group works to simplify environmental problems, and develop strategies to communicate the results broadly.

GLOBAL SURFACE TEMPERATURES

ECG worked at recognizing and solving important problems that others have missed or deemed unsolvable. ECG worked on the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Study - a transparent, easily accessible database that merges and normalizes all of the major global surface temperature data going back to 1800. A unique, portable application allows researchers and the public at large graphical access to this powerful temperature data set.

CARBON LEVERS

ECG is developed a transparent platform called Carbon Levers for evaluating pathways to reduce carbon emissions. Over the next few decades, trillions of dollars will be invested to upgrade and expand the energy capacity of the world's economies. Despite all of the sophisticated climate models that have been developed, there remains a great need to clearly articulate the key problems and available investment levers in an understandable way.

An easy to use interactive tool is needed to help guide policymakers, investors, NGOs, planners, and ordinary citizens in taking into account the priorities and trade-offs country-by-country and project-by-project. Remarkably, this has never been done, and international leaders Lord Nicholas Stern and professor Robert Socolow agree that - unfortunately - experts have done a poor job of communicating the underlying message. The model will allow users to understand the material carbon emitters, the solutions to reducing emissions, and the investment levels required to generate those reductions.

NATURAL GAS EMISSIONS

One of the key 'levers' in mitigating carbon emissions in the short term is believed to be replacing coal with natural gas. However, some scientists argue that the methane emissions associated with production and delivery of natural gas are significant enough that it throws into question the net GHG benefits of natural gas compared to coal. ECG undertook a study to analyze the methane emissions associated with natural gas production and distribution, and determined a range of actual methane leakage rates. This work was published in the Journal Science.