This funding announcement aligns with the Government of Canada’s and SDTC’s goal to support companies that develop technology solutions to help solve climate change related issues. Canada is a signatory to the Paris Agreement. Its government is committed to supporting the international effort to limit the increase in the average global temperature to 1.5°C. Canada’s formally enshrined its commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 in the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act. Leah Lawrence, President/ CEO of SDTC: “World leaders have recognized the reduction of methane emissions as a top priority in addressing climate. As we head into COP26, we’ll need better data to make informed decisions and to take action. Using satellite technology, GHGSat has demonstrated its leadership in identifying methane leaks around the world. With today’s funding, SDTC is proud to continue our support of GHGSat as they take their methane monitoring and analytics to the next level.”
Detecting methane and carbon dioxide
“This support is the fruit of a long-standing partnership between SDTC and GHGSat,” said Stéphane Germain, the latter organization’s CEO. “It will enable us to deploy a constellation of more than 10 high-resolution satellites. These will detect methane, with an additional satellite dedicated to detecting carbon dioxide. Directly monitoring the origin of greenhouse gas emissions from space is our core expertise. This enables us to better equip governments, financial markets, and companies to meeting their carbon neutrality commitments by leveraging reliable information products.” GHGSat also plans to establish secure big data infrastructure. And thus, the capacity to manage its growing constellation of satellites. Furthermore, to process and transform large data volumes into high value information products and analytics.
GHGSat supports International Methane Emissions Observatory
At COP26, more than 100 countries signed up to the Global Methane Pledge. This aims to limit emissions by 30% compared with 2020 levels. Both public and commercial satellite data play key roles in assessing progress on climate action. It makes perfect sense that GHGSat, in a coalition with ESA and the Canadian Space Agency, is supporting UNEP’s International Methane Emissions Observatory. This was announced at COP26. UNEP’s lead on methane emission, Manfredi Caltagirone, commented, “The integration of satellite data such as from the ESA-operated Copernicus Sentinel-5P and GHGSat features company reports and scientific studies. This will better target mitigation actions at the scale and speed required to meet the 1.5° target. We thank the Canadian Government for providing access to GHGSat data. IMEO looks forward to engaging with the Canadian Government as well as oil and gas companies in the future.”
GHG Monitoring From Space report
Also, emphasis lies on the need to work together to mitigate the effects of climate change. That’s why the Group on Earth Observations, the Climate TRACE consortium, and the World Geospatial Industry Council launched a report at COP26. The Greenhouse Gas Monitoring from Space: A mapping of capabilities across public, private and hybrid satellite missions report and the database that underpins it is the first joint systematic effort by earth observation data providers from the public and private sectors to map the current and upcoming satellite missions that monitor greenhouse gases. Both Copernicus Sentinel-5P and GHGSat feature in the report.