Data Foundation maps U.S. greenhouse gas data system for first time

The Data Foundation’s Center for Climate and Environmental Data has released the first State of the GHG MMRV Enterprise report, offering a snapshot of the U.S. greenhouse gas data infrastructure. The inventory is designed to clarify who does what across a fragmented system that underpins climate decisions and is changing quickly as federal roles shift and non-federal actors expand.

Why it matters: - The U.S. greenhouse gas data system underpins climate policy, emissions tracking, and decisions by public and private actors. - The new report aims to define a system that has never been clearly mapped, making it harder to see how changes in one part affect the rest. - The inventory is meant to help state, commercial, and philanthropic partners coordinate around shared roles and responsibilities.

What happened: - The Data Foundation’s Center for Climate and Environmental Data released the first State of the GHG MMRV Enterprise report on Aug. 31, 2026. - The report is a “pulse report,” designed to capture a snapshot of the enterprise and document changes over time. - The report draws from a new GHG Enterprise Catalog covering the U.S. GHG Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification enterprise. - The Catalog currently tracks 114 data assets and activities operated by 66 programs, players, and groups. - Those programs span the federal government, universities, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and state governments. - The Catalog is maintained by CCED with input from its GHG Coalition, a nonpartisan technical network of more than 90 individuals across more than 30 organizations.

The details: - The report says federal agencies have historically funded and operated the core measurement, monitoring, modeling and standards infrastructure that supports the rest of the enterprise. - Agencies named in the report include NOAA, NASA, NIST, EPA, USDA, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. - The report finds that since January 2025, agencies central to the enterprise have seen major changes in program priorities, structure and staffing. - Several historically federal programs or activities have been discontinued or scaled back in a short period. - The Catalog shows non-federal actors are starting or expanding activities in areas where federal programs have contracted. - Sonia Wang, senior director of CCED, said demand for credible GHG data is growing fast while the enterprise remains fragmented and poorly defined. - Wang said the federal government has been the backbone of the enterprise, but shifting priorities mean clear roles and responsibilities are needed.

Between the lines: - The report is not just a data inventory. It is also a signal that the climate-data ecosystem is becoming more distributed. - If federal capacity keeps changing, the burden of maintaining trusted GHG information may shift toward a broader mix of public, private and philanthropic actors. - The emphasis on shared roadmaps suggests the field is moving from description toward coordination.

What's next: - Future editions of the report and Catalog will move beyond landscape snapshots to deeper analysis of specific topics. - CCED plans to use the GHG Coalition’s expertise to help identify shared priorities and build roadmaps for advancing them. - The full report is available here.

The bottom line: - The Data Foundation is trying to put structure around a critical but fragmented greenhouse gas data system at a time when federal and non-federal roles are rapidly changing.