State of California and Planet Announce Groundbreaking Initiative to Support Action on Climate Change

Today, Planet is excited to announce a groundbreaking partnership with the State of California to develop Earth observation satellites to help climate action. The news was announced by California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. onstage during the closing remarks of the Global Climate Action Summit, and follow his remarks at the American Geophysical Union two years ago that “California will launch its own damn satellite.”

“With science still under attack and the climate threat growing, we’re launching our own damn satellite,” said Governor Brown.

The State of California, via the California Air Resources Board, and other stakeholders are leading efforts to measure climate change, whether from aerial surveys or ground-based sensors. The partnership between Planet and the State of California will take it to the next level by leveraging Planet’s expertise and recently expanded manufacturing facility to develop new satellite technology to monitor climate change.  

The partnership aims to achieve a long-term, sustainable model for developing satellite technologies that would enable us to collect certain climate data to encourage better decision-making. With accurate measurement of and greater transparency on climate data, governments, businesses, scientists, and citizens around the world can develop more targeted and effective mitigation strategies.

Planet is uniquely positioned to help lead this effort. In the time since Governor Brown pledged to launch a satellite at AGU, California – by way of Planet – has done just that. Our mission of imaging the whole world every day is fully operational, with more than 150 satellites currently in orbit. Earlier this year at the Small Satellite Summit, NASA announced that they will use Planet’s existing data to support their scientific investigations, including to measure what are called “Essential Climate Variables.”

This new effort with California capitalizes on the state’s leadership in the fight against climate change and leverages a culture of innovation that has made the Golden State home to some of the world’s leading technologies. Planet is incredibly proud to be a part of this truly historic effort.

To learn more about this exciting initiative, read the full release here.