A SpaceX-launched satellite will name and shame oil and gas companies that leak methane

Good morning.

One of the great challenges facing businesses in the modern era is that they must undergo two revolutions—a technology revolution and an energy revolution—at the same time. The two interact in complex ways. On the downside, AI is quickly becoming a massive energy suck—as this recent story in the Washington Post documents. But on the upside, data technologies are opening up new opportunities to track and reduce climate-damaging emissions.

Last week’s SpaceX launch of a satellite dedicated to tracking methane emissions is a landmark example of the second. At COP28 in December, some 50 oil and gas companies agreed to dramatically cut methane leaks in their systems by 2030. The new satellite will give the world the data it needs to hold them to that pledge.

I spoke Friday with Fred Krupp, long-time head of the Environmental Defense Fund, which developed the satellite plan. Krupp believes the methane agreement is:

“…the single most important thing that's ever been announced at any COP in terms of the effect it's going to have in lowering the temperature rise that we would otherwise see in the next 10 years."

“Carbon dioxide is the gas everyone knows about and has been talking about for the longest time. But it turns out that in 2020, anthropogenic releases of methane will warm the planet over the next 10 years about as much as all the carbon dioxide from burning all the fossil fuels on the entire planet. That's how important methane is to the short term…"

"A lot of the oil and gas methane emissions are from little chronic leaks that are 24/7. But they're all fixable for a very reasonable cost."

MethaneSAT will spot those leaks…and make them public.

Separately, Krupp, who is the most practically-minded leader of a major environmental group, said the SEC climate disclosure rule released last week is an “important step forward” even though it didn’t address the critical issue of companies’ so-called “Scope 3” emissions from suppliers and customers.

“I understand that it's harder to report on Scope 3. So I do think the SEC deserves a lot of credit for moving forward and on what they did move forward on. And in terms of the parts they took out, we can come back to those."

Other news below.

Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com