A new initiative merges satellite tracking with AI and other powerful computing to create an Eye of Sauron-style tool for tracking methane.

Why it matters: Methane is a powerful planet-warming gas, and oil and gas infrastructure is among the largest sources.

What's new: The Environmental Defense Fund next month will launch MethaneSAT, which will orbit Earth 15 times per day from 350 miles above.

• Google is providing Cloud computing and applying AI to the satellite imagery.
• The combined mapping and analyses create "unprecedented" power to pinpoint emissions — and give useful info to companies, researchers and the public, they said.
• MIT Technology Review has more.

The big picture: "We're effectively putting on a really high-quality set of glasses, allowing us to look at the Earth and these emissions with a sharpness that we've never had before," EDF chief scientist Steven Hamburg told reporters.

What we're watching: How it might aid corporate and regulatory efforts.

• And over 155 nations back a voluntary pledge to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030 (relative to 2020).

The bottom line: "This data puts a key into the hands of stakeholders around the world and gives them the ability to unlock reductions," Hamburg said.