Artificial intelligence is helping the UN convert satellite data into methane mitigation action, delivering climate benefits equal to removing 24 million cars annually, UNEP says.
The report, Spotlighting Opportunity: How Artificial Intelligence is Accelerating Methane Action, published yesterday, details how the UN Environment Programme’s International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) is using AI to good effect.
Through its Methane Alert and Response System (MARS), UNEP is using AI to identify major methane emissions and rapidly notify governments and companies of opportunities to act. Since becoming fully operational in 2024, MARS has contributed to more than 40 methane mitigation actions worldwide.
With more than 30 satellites generating vast volumes of data on methane emissions, human analysts alone struggle to process the information at the scale needed for action. AI is dramatically speeding up that process, enabling IMEO analysts to process 12-15 times more data while maintaining scientific rigour.
AI-assisted workflows identified 80-85% of confirmed methane detections before expert review, helping to mitigate sources estimated to have emitted 1.2m tonnes of methane.
Martin Krause, director of UNEP’s climate change division, said: “Methane is only the beginning. The real lesson from this work is that AI can help convert the explosion of environmental data into practical action. By combining scientific expertise with lightweight and energy-efficient AI tools, we can respond faster not only to methane emissions, but to a wide range of environmental challenges.”
The methane-monitoring models were designed specifically to be lightweight and energy efficient, UNEP said, requiring only modest computing resources while delivering substantial gains in monitoring capacity.
The findings come as governments and companies face growing pressure to deliver on the Global Methane Pledge and the UN secretary-general’s Call to Action on Methane, which asks countries to respond to 80% of methane alerts received through MARS.
Methane is around 80 times more powerful than CO2 over a 20-year period, though it remains in the atmosphere for only about a decade. Cutting emissions – which come mainly from the fossil fuel, agriculture, and waste sectors – can rapidly slow the rate of global warming and deliver other benefits, including reduced air pollution and stronger crop yields.
MARS addresses the challenge of turning rising volumes of methane data into targeted action by integrating data from more than 30 satellite instruments, and using AI models to distinguish genuine methane emissions, such as leaks from oil and gas facilities, from environmental noise. The system is now expanding beyond oil and gas to cover coal and waste. Since 2023, it has analysed more than 1.3m satellite observations.
Human expertise remains central to the process. Every AI-flagged detection is independently reviewed and verified by IMEO analysts before a notification is issued, UNEP said, ensuring decisions stay grounded in scientific judgement.
UNEP is also making key datasets and code openly available, to help researchers, governments and other organisations build on its experience and expand access to methane-monitoring tools.
Krause added: “As new satellite missions increase the volume of methane data available worldwide, the challenge is no longer finding emissions but acting on them. UNEP’s experience shows how AI can help bridge that gap, enabling faster identification of major methane releases and helping convert data into measurable emissions reductions.”
Image credit: @nasa/Unsplash
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