Environmental Defense Fund
Monitoring methane emissions to fight climate change
The Environmental Defense Fund is an environmental advocacy nonprofit guided by science and economics, committed to climate justice, and driven to deliver solutions that will create a healthier planet for all.
The Lemelson Foundation has provided grant funding to support EDF’s MethaneSAT project, an observational satellite that monitors and measures industrial methane emissions worldwide. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to climate change — and one key preventable source is leaks from oil and gas facilities that MethaneSAT is designed to detect.
In March 2024, MethaneSAT garnered global attention when it was successfully launched into orbit by New Zealand’s space agency and SpaceX.
MethaneSAT has also established a partnership with Google to utilize their mapping and artificial intelligence technologies to process the satellite data and create visualizations of significant sources of methane emissions. It will then make this information accessible to the public to support collective efforts to combat climate change.
Learn more about the Environmental Defense Fund’s MethaneSAT:
