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Since the Industrial Revolution, human activities have released significant amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide and methane, driving climate change. Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is responsible for about 25 per cent of the global warming we experience today. Although methane remains in the atmosphere for about a decade, it has a global warming potential 29.8 times greater than carbon dioxide over 100 years. In the near future however, it will be 82.5 times more potent than carbon dioxide over 20 years due to its short lifetime. This makes reducing methane emissions a highly effective strategy for mitigating climate change.

In Canada, policies have been implemented to reduce methane emissions from human activities, but setting meaningful reduction targets requires accurate estimates of current emissions. Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) publishes annual National Inventory Reports (NIR) detailing greenhouse gas emissions, including methane, by sector and region. However, these reports lack a critical piece of information: a detailed map of methane emissions across the country.

Big changes are happening in Canada's Arctic region because of climate change. The ground that used to be permanently frozen (called permafrost) is thawing at an increasing rate. This accelerated thaw has significant consequences for the landscape, affecting the stability of infrastructure and the functioning of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The latter includes changing the movement of water and carbon between the land and the atmosphere, with global implications.