This paper presents the concept of a spaceborne imaging spectrometer targeting the routine monitoring of CO₂ emissions from localized point sources down to an emission strength of about 1 Mt CO₂ yr^-1. Using high-resolution CO₂ emission and albedo data, it is shown that CO₂ plumes from point sources with an emission strength down to the order of 0.3 Mt CO₂ yr^-1 can be resolved in an urban environment (when limited by instrument noise only), hence leaving significant margin for additional errors.