UNEP's IMEO Methane Alert and Response System to drive the mitigation of anthropogenic methane emissions

UNEP's International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) launched the Methane Alert and Response System (MARS) in 2023 to provide open, reliable, and actionable data to those individuals with the agency to act on them and ultimately reduce methane emissions. MARS uses satellite observations to detect and monitor large methane emissions and then notifies governments and companies worldwide. With the development of MARS, IMEO opened a new level of transparency that reveals dozens of large methane emissions around the world every week. Thanks to the synergistic use of more than a dozen different open-access satellite missions, combined with the development of Machine Learning models that support and optimize the work of the MARS analysis group, IMEO provides the largest open-access database of point source methane emissions detected with different satellites. At the same time, since its launch in January 2023, MARS has directly notified stakeholders of more than 1900 methane plumes linked to the oil and gas (O&G) sector in about 30 countries.  As a result of these notifications, IMEO has confirmed a number of mitigated emission sources following stakeholder action. Throughout the MARS process, we also learn new information and lessons about the accuracy of our measurements, the root causes behind the observed emissions, and the real feasibility of mitigating emission sources under different scenarios and geographic areas, among others.

While MARS notifications are currently on sent for recent O&G point source emissions, it also has the capability to detect and monitor emissions from other sectors, such as coal and waste. Additionally, we have the ability to explore satellite archive data to conduct more in-depth analyses of the historical behaviour of the emitters. As a result, IMEO is currently expanding MARS’ capacity to further support IMEO's scientific studies and its efforts towards increasing transparency in the metallurgical coal and waste sectors to drive emissions reduction.

In this contribution, we will show case studies we have recently dealt with, lessons learned, improvements, and new data and methodologies integrated into MARS based on scientific research. We will also give an overview of IMEO’s efforts in the metallurgical coal sector and in the waste sector through scientific studies and with the support of remote sensing data generated through MARS.