CarbonTracer

What is CarbonTracer and what does it do?

CarbonTracer is a service for reliable calculation and realistic mapping of greenhouse gas emissions in the field of mobility, differentiating between different forms of transport. The entire life cycle of the relevant mode of transport is factored in.

The service is particularly helpful in the following areas:

• Forecasting: Planning travel/business trips (comparison of greenhouse gas emissions for different modes of transport)
• Backcasting: Greenhouse gas emissions for past travel/business trips (monitoring greenhouse gas emissions)
• Nowcasting: Live calculation of greenhouse gas emissions (e.g. overlay app with emissions tracking during the journey)
• Commuting: Analysis/comparison of commuter journeys for more climate-friendly commuting

CarbonTracer’s strengths

• Emissions calculations are kept up to date by the Wegener Center using the latest scientific publications
• Includes partial journeys (e.g. intermediate stops/stopovers)
• Includes different c used during the journey
• Rail travel: train (seat, sleeper, couchette)
• Road travel: electric bus, bus, electric car, car
• Air travel: flight (economy, business, first class)

For rail travel

• Takes account of different levels of electrification and power supply in European countries
• Splits journeys into segments by country for cross-border journeys
• Maps actual routes for rail, car and bus journeys (using rail and street maps)

For air travel

• Includes CO2-equivalent calculation of climate-affecting non-CO2 impacts from increased radiative forcing in the atmosphere (effects of flight altitude)
• Takes account of the uplift factor based on the latest research
• Distinguishes between short- and long-haul flights

Who can use CarbonTracer?

CarbonTracer is a free service and can be used by Organisationen, organisations, institutions or individuals for projects of any kind. To use the service, you need a valid API-Key, , which is provided when you register (free of charge) on this platform. Each API key allows up to 40 requests per minute and 2,000 requests per day

How can I use CarbonTracer?

To connect via Machine2Machine (M2M) you have the following options:

• Integration into your own application using a REST-API or a plain text API
• Queries in Excel using the plain text API

For individual queries there are also two web apps available which refer directly to our service:

• Web app Emissions Comparison
  
• Web app Emissions Routes
  

Registered users can also integrate the CarbonTracer directly into their website

• Widget configuration
  

For processing larger amounts of data, you can now also process a list of trips via a CSV file directly on the website

• WebApp batch-processing