Japanese insurance giant Sompo partners with Israeli startup Momentick

Sompo, a leading Japanese insurance company, is teaming up with the Israeli startup Momentick to enhance environmental monitoring and mitigate global warming. Momentick has developed a solution for identifying and measuring greenhouse gas emissions using satellite images. The Japanese government is keen on regulating policies in this domain, particularly for Japanese-owned gas platforms and pipelines located outside Japan's maritime boundaries.

Sompo continues to bridge Japan and innovative Israeli tech firms, this time for environmental sustainability. With Japan increasingly involved in the global race to reduce carbon footprints to slow global warming, there's a growing need for technologies to monitor greenhouse gas emissions from energy production and transportation pipelines. This is crucial as Japanese companies operating gas platforms and pipelines outside Japan face fines and sanctions from territorial governments, like those in the US and Europe, which tighten regulatory oversight on greenhouse gas emissions. Given Japan's lack of domestic gas production due to geographic constraints, its exposure to the natural gas market happens through investment and operation of energy sources and gas pipelines in foreign territories, such as the US.

Sompo, one of Japan’s top three insurance companies, is stepping in to help the Japanese government and corporations address greenhouse gas emissions. Operating in 30 countries and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange with a market value of $21 billion, Sompo established its innovation center in Tel Aviv in 2018 (the other two centers are in Tokyo and Silicon Valley) led by Yinon Dolev. This center spearheads commercial collaborations with Israeli startups and initiated the current partnership with Momentick, in cooperation with Sompo's business unit.

Sompo has started working with Momentick, and they are currently demonstrating the Israeli company's technology, focusing on its ability to detect methane emissions, one of the major greenhouse gases, via satellite images. Momentick has proven its capability by providing accurate analysis compared to an active sensor installed by the American entity Carbon Mapper, which scanned specific areas in central USA, yielding identical results to the Israeli company.

In this demonstration, Momentick analyzed the amount and locations of methane in the atmosphere using software that employs hyperspectral analysis and algorithms based on satellite images. The findings and insights will be supplied to Sompo and its subsidiary, Sompo Risk Management, to jointly explore the potential for technical verification, service provision, and insurance product development. Data from the GOSAT satellite, the world’s first satellite dedicated to monitoring carbon dioxide and methane concentrations from space, will also be used for technical verification. Data analysis will be conducted in collaboration with the Climate Change Research Department of the Japanese Ministry of the Environment and the Satellite Observation Center of the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Japan.

Additionally, for technical verification, Sompo invites companies ready and able to participate in testing their owned or managed facilities, currently focusing on energy market companies, especially those operating gas platforms and pipelines. Participation is open to both Japanese and foreign companies. Depending on the demonstration results, Sompo may offer Momentick's services as part of the group's risk management services (SOMPO Risk Management).