Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) - MethaneAIR Programme

This award recognises an environmental organisation that turned a satellite failure into an enduring airborne victory for climate transparency. After the MethaneSAT spacecraft was lost in June 2025, the team did not abandon the mission; instead, the MethaneAIR programme – a high‑resolution spectrometer mounted on aircraft – continued to fly over oil and gas basins across the United States throughout the year. Its MAIRE25 campaign in Texas demonstrated that methane can be traced not just to a region but to individual facility clusters, empowering regulators, companies and communities to act on specific, verifiable leaks.

The programme’s commitment to open data sets it apart. All MethaneAIR measurements are published freely online, transforming what could have been a scientific setback into a lasting public good.

By providing facility‑level methane emissions data, this initiative directly supports the rapid mitigation of a greenhouse gas 80 times more potent than CO₂ over 20 years. For proving that persistence, transparency and science‑based measurement are the true engines of methane reduction, this programme deserves recognition. For proving that science-based, facility-level emissions intelligence can be the most powerful engine of methane reduction, the EDF MethaneAIR Programme receives this recognition.

Score: 89

Reference: https://www.edf.org/methanesat/fight-climate-change-methaneair