Clean Air Task Force Case Study

Clean Air Task Force Case Study

Oct 7 2025 Laure Boinette

Case Study | Waste & Landfill | Satellite Methane Monitoring

Landfill Methane Monitoring in Africa Is Revealing an Emissions Crisis Ground Surveys Can't See

The Clean Air Task Force used GHGSat satellite data to monitor methane emissions across landfills in West, Central, and Eastern Africa in regions where traditional monitoring is impractical, expensive, and largely absent. Download the case study to see what they found.

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The Challenge

Why Landfill Methane Monitoring in Africa Has a Data Problem

Landfill methane monitoring in Africa faces a challenge that no ground crew can solve at scale: the continent’s waste infrastructure spans hundreds of sites across geographies that are remote, understaffed, and largely invisible to global emissions inventories.

Africa’s waste generation is projected to triple by 2050. Without measurement, that growth becomes unmeasured methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, with a warming effect roughly 80 times greater than CO₂ over a 20-year period.

Ground-based surveys require crews, equipment, permits, and access. In much of sub-Saharan Africa, those conditions don’t exist consistently across sites. The result is a methane data gap that leaves decision-makers, advocates, and communities without the evidence they need to act.

Satellite monitoring changes that equation entirely.

The Program

How CATF Used Satellite Data to Map the Methane Challenge

The Clean Air Task Force is a nonprofit that works to accelerate clean energy solutions through science-driven advocacy. To understand the scale of the landfill methane challenge in Africa and to build the evidence base for policy action, CATF partnered with GHGSat to deploy satellite methane monitoring across landfill sites in West, Central, and Eastern Africa.

GHGSat satellites detect and quantify methane at the facility level, identifying emission sources with 25-meter resolution and monitoring at a cadence that periodic ground surveys cannot match. In regions where access is limited and data has historically been absent, satellite monitoring provides the only scalable path to consistent, science-backed emissions intelligence.

CATF used this data to support advocacy, inform decision-makers, and build the evidence base for mitigation action in communities that have long been underserved by global monitoring programs.

“By using satellite monitoring, we can expand our reach and provide science-backed evidence to decision-makers and underserved communities.”

— Kait Siegel, Director, Waste Methane, Clean Air Task Force

Download the case study to see:

  • How satellite methane monitoring operates across landfills in regions with limited ground access and what the data reveals about emission patterns across West, Central, and Eastern Africa
  • How CATF used GHGSat data to identify sites that require attention and build the evidence base for targeted advocacy
  • What it takes to go from satellite detection to on-the-ground mitigation planning in markets where monitoring infrastructure does not yet exist
  • How integrated approaches connect data collection to actionable outcomes for governments, NGOs, and waste sector operators
  • Why landfill methane monitoring in Africa is becoming a critical input for climate finance, policy design, and community health protection

Read the Full Case Study

Get the complete story of how CATF used landfill methane monitoring data across Africa to build a science-backed case for action.

Download Case Study

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