UK Space Agency funding: bringing satellite emissions evidence into Sustainable Finance

Strathclyde Business School and Callala Ltd are working together to develop PEEPS – Platform Environmental Evidence and Performance Sentinel – following a funding award from the UK Space Agency.

PEEPS is an Earth observation service that gives investors, lenders and insurers independent, asset-level evidence of how offshore oil and gas platforms perform environmentally.

Callala is delivering PEEPS with the University of Strathclyde, bringing together the Aerospace Centre of Excellence and Strathclyde Business School. PEEPS is one of seven projects backed through a combined £500,000 investment, which the UK Space Agency announced on October 12.

Callala has long argued that space-enabled data can close the gap between what companies report and what is happening on the ground. They have made that case in work on sustainable investing, outcome evidencing and market fit. PEEPS is where that argument becomes a product.

Until now, Callala has advised others on how Earth observation might serve sustainable finance. With PEEPS, it will build, own and operate a UK climate service designed for the financial domain from the outset. The service will provide evidence that is scored, benchmarked and attributable, so it fits directly into investment analysis, stewardship and assurance.

What is known about emissions from offshore installations comes largely from operators’ own disclosures. Many of those figures are modelled from operational factors rather than measured at the platform.

 Over six months, this project will produce:

• An Environmental Performance Scoring and Benchmark Classification Framework. It will score assets against their peers, flag those whose emissions differ materially, and show how confident each judgement is.
• Attribution of each asset to its operator and parent company over time. This means performance follows ownership through divestment and restructuring.
• Structured engagement with investors, regulators and policy organisations. This will establish user needs, evidential thresholds and willingness to pay.
• A System Requirements Specification and Commercial Business Case, followed by a Commercialisation Strategy setting out the route to prototype and pilots.

PEEPS is designed for the people and organisations who allocate, oversee and regulate capital: pension funds, asset managers, lenders, insurers, regulators and policy bodies.

Many institutional investors hold fiduciary duties that keep them invested in oil and gas. Where their mandates also carry environmental objectives, they need a robust way to tell well-run assets from poorly run ones. Independent evidence supports engagement and stewardship that drive operational change, rather than leaving blanket exclusion as the only lever.

Andrew Iwanoczko, CEO of Callala, said, “Sustainable finance has spent more than a decade asking companies to tell us how they perform. The next decade is all about independence and evidence.

“Satellites already observe every offshore platform in UK waters. PEEPS turns those observations into evidence an investor can act on and defend. For Callala, it marks a deliberate step that moves and shapes Earth observation services for others to owning one built for the financial domain.”

PEEPS needs no new satellites, tasking or proprietary data. Sentinel-5P observations are openly accessible, and North Sea Transition Authority asset records are public. The value lies in their analyses. Its intellectual property, skills, future revenue and growth will together remain in the UK.

The project lays the foundation for later development:

• Wider indicators: NOₓ, methane, flaring and venting.
• New geographies: the Norwegian, Danish, Dutch and German North Sea sectors.

“We want to see meaningful reductions in environmental harm, and that only happens when performance is visible,” added Andrew. “Independent evidence rewards the operators doing the right thing and gives investors the confidence to back them and also means that cynical, yet legal activities can be exposed as material to decision-making.”

Dr James Bowden, Department of Accounting and Finance, said, "The PEEPS project builds on previous research conducted by Strathclyde Business School and the Department of Mechancial and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) investigating the effects of corporate ownership type on environmental performance across North Sea Oil and Gas assets. We use geospatial data to offer a more objective and transparent alternative to self-reported emissions in corporate disclosures.

"It is especially timely given the recent announcements around drilling in the North Sea region, and, by partnering with Callala, we feel it represents a good example of interdisciplinary collaboration across Strathclyde leading to real-world impact through industry engagement."

The project runs from October 2026 to March 2027.

Published: 3 November 2026