Objectives of the Product

The UK government has implemented several policies and strategies to reduce methane emissions and achieve net-zero by 2050. However, without good data underpinning decision-making and action, the UK will fail to meet these targets. This solution will bridge the gap between existing satellite-based measurement data and operationally relevant, actionable information.

Greenhouse gas emissions linked to UK consumption are rising, driven largely by imported goods. Due to its high global warming potential, methane is a priority for action, as the potent greenhouse gas contributed around 16% of the UK’s territorial emissions in 2023. Agriculture, waste, and energy sectors accounted for 49%, 30%, and 8% of these emissions respectively. Methane also makes up an estimated 15% of emissions embedded in imports, largely from oil and natural gas—53 billion cubic meters imported in 2022 alone.

Over half of methane emissions are “fugitive,” meaning their sources and timing are unpredictable and so difficult to estimate or detect without frequent monitoring. Without robust data on methane sources, the UK risks missing its net-zero targets. Satellites offer a cost-effective, consistent way to for regular monitoring of methane emissions.

Emissions Watch delivers detailed mapping and monitoring of industrial greenhouse gas emissions using advanced satellite analytics and contextual facility data. It provides timely, actionable insights to support compliance, inform policy, and drive sustainable outcomes.

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Customers and their Needs

Government agencies are the target market for this service—both the United Kingdom and wider Europe.

In the United Kingdom, there are four specific needs:

• Replacing modelled estimates of methane emissions in the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) with empirical, measured data
• Tracking emissions from imports against international commitments, assessing compliance and informing future import standards
• Supporting the implementation of methane reduction schemes and incentives, such as the expansion of the UK emissions trading scheme and carbon border adjustment mechanism, through independent Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification
• Enforcing existing and future environmental and health and safety regulations, such as Leak Detection and Repair programs or emissions threshold penalties

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Targeted customer/users countries

The service will be primarily targeted towards the UK before being out to Europe and broader global markets.

Regulatory agencies include the UK Environment Agency, Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, Natural Resources Wales, North Sea Transition Authority, and the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets.

Policy bodies include Defra and DESNZ, as well as similar agencies across European governments.

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Product description

Emissions Watch will provide a comprehensive view of methane emissions tied to specific facilities, allowing the tracking of emissions at the site level—Asset-Level Analytics—and portfolio level by type, sector, ownership, or geography for Executive Reporting.

The service will initially focus on methane from onshore oil and gas and waste facilities using artificial intelligence (AI) and satellite data to identify and map facilities.

By combining information from a range of public and private data sources, it will then connect these mapped locations with important details such as the type of facility and ownership information, creating a “Facility database”.

Finally, Emissions Watch will draw on remotely sensed satellite short-wave infrared data (GHGSat and Sentinel-2) to both detect and measure emissions and then link those measurements directly to the corresponding industrial facilities via machine learning.

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Added Value

The key areas of innovation brought by Emissions Watch include:

• Greater accountability for emissions variability and unexpected sources. Augmenting existing estimates of methane emissions modelled by customers with observed empirical data (from satellite) will improve the overall accuracy of emissions recorded. This is done by addressing inherent issues of error and uncertainty caused by the dependency on generalised emissions factors and activity data used in modelling. Modelling approaches fail to capture super-emitter events or operational anomalies that contribute disproportionately to total emissions (up to 60% according to different sources). Furthermore, independent mapping of methane emitting facilities (using satellite and AI) will ensure full transparency and accounting for all emitting facilities, minimising non detection or underestimation that results from fugitive emissions which are typically an important part of the total emissions profile.
• Linking emissions activity to the accountable party. Providing origin certainty and linking probability of ownership at the source of emissions will allow relating of observation data through to relevant regulatory or licensing frameworks to support decision making and action.
• Comprehensive global reference for observed emissions data. A complete emissions dataset (enabled by combining GHGSat with public sector data) uniquely supports analytics and reporting that allows an individual facility to be put into the context of global trends (By facility type, sector, ownership or geography). This allows for performance measurement to support applications such as tracking reduction targets or benchmarking against competitors.

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Current Status

The activity held its Kick-Off meeting on the 4 September 2025.