‍We're thrilled to announce that Neural Alpha has been awarded a €75,000 grant from the European Space Agency (ESA) Space Solutions initiative to develop a pioneering platform that verifies corporate environmental claims using satellite imagery and AI.

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Space Meets Sustainability

When companies claim they've rehabilitated a mine site, stopped deforestation in their supply chain, or reforested degraded land—how do we know if it's true? That question sits at the heart of the greenwashingcrisis, and it's exactly what we're setting out to solve.

Our project, "Automated Verification of Environmental Claims Using Earth Observation and AI," was selected under the ESA Space Solutions Space Supporting Environmental Claims Kick-Start programme. The funding will support a six-month feasibility study todevelop technology that cross-references what companies say in their sustainability reports against what satellites actually observe happening onthe ground.

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Why This Matters Now

The numbers are stark. A 2021 European Commission sweep of websites found that 42% of green claims were exaggerated, false, or deceptive—potentially qualifying as unfair commercial practices under EU rules[1]. A separate EC study found that 53% of environmental claims gave vague,misleading, or unfounded information [2]. Meanwhile, global climate litigation cases have more than doubled since 2017, rising from 884 cases to over 2,180 by the end of 2022, according to a UN Environment Programme report [3].

Regulators are getting serious. Under the Digital Markets,Competition and Consumers Act 2024, which came into force in April 2025, the UK's Competition & Markets Authority can now levy fines of up to 10% ofglobal turnover for misleading environmental claims—without needing to gothrough the courts [4].

The regulatory landscape is shifting fast. The EU Green Claims Directive, effective from 2026, will require companies to back their environmental claims with independently verifiable evidence. The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is already mandating sustainability reporting for potentially up to 50,000 EU companies [5]. There's a growing gap between what regulations demand and what companies can actually prove—and that's where we come in.

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How It Works

Our platform builds on Neural Alpha's existing technology, which uses AI to extract and analyse ESG claims from corporate disclosures. We're now adding a crucial new layer: satellite verification.

The system will ingest free, open data from the Copernicus Sentinel satellite constellations—Sentinel-2 for optical imagery and Sentinel-1 for radar that can see through clouds. Using AI-powered geospatial reasoning,we'll detect land-use changes and compare them directly against the specific claims companies make in their sustainability reports.

Think of it as an automated fact-checker for environmental commitments. A company claims they've restored vegetation at a mine site in 2023? We can pull the satellite time-series data and check whether vegetation indices actually increased over that period. Claims about maintaining forest cover in a supply chain? We can monitor those exact coordinates for deforestation events.

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Who It's For

We're building this for the organisations who need trustworthy environmental data most: government regulators enforcing anti-greenwashing legislation; institutional investors conducting ESG due diligence on portfolio companies; NGOs tracking corporate sustainability commitments; ESG auditors and consultancies seeking scalable verification tools; and corporate sustainability teams who want to validate their own claims before publication.

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Why Space?

Space-based Earth observation offers something no other verification method can match: consistent, objective, global coverage. You simply cannot send auditors to every mine site, forest concession, and agricultural operation that companies make claims about. But satellites already pass over these locations every few days, building up an objective historical record that isn't provided by the companies themselves.

Under the EU Green Claims Directive, evidence for environmental claims must be science-based and verifiable. Satellite data fits that requirement perfectly—it's transparent, reproducible, and can be independently cross-checked.

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What's Next

The ESA Space Solutions Kick-Start funding supports a six-month feasibility study where we'll validate the technical approach, engage with pilot customers, and build the business case for scale-up. We're already in conversations with institutional investors, regulatory bodies, and NGOs who are keen to see this capability come to market.

If the feasibility phase succeeds, the path forward includes larger-scale ESA Demonstration Project funding and commercial launch targeting the £10-25 million UK/EU market opportunity for independent environmental claim verification.

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A Natural Evolution

This project represents a natural extension of Neural Alpha's mission to bring transparency to sustainable finance and environmental NGOs.  We’ll be working closely with project partner Grieg Investor to gather industry feedback and pilot solutions with Responsible Investors and Corporates.

Now we're taking that capability further—fusing AI-powered text analysis with satellite-derived evidence to create something genuinely new: an automated, evidence-based auditing system for corporate green claims.

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Get Involved

We're looking for pilot partners who want early access to this capability. If you're a regulator, investor, NGO, or corporate sustainability team interested in independent verification of environmental claims, we'd love to hear from you.

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Contact us at info@neuralalpha.com

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Sources:

[1] European Commission, "Screening of websites for'greenwashing': half of green claims lack evidence," January 2021. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_269

[2] European Commission, "Green claims"environment topic page. https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/circular-economy-topics/green-claims_en

[3] UN Environment Programme, "Global ClimateLitigation Report: 2023 Status Review," July 2023. https://www.unep.org/resources/report/global-climate-litigation-report-2023-status-review

[4] UK Government, "Greenwashing: CMA issues tailoredguide for fashion brands," September 2024. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/greenwashing-cma-issues-tailored-guide-for-fashion-brands

[5] European Commission, Corporate Sustainability ReportingDirective (CSRD). https://finance.ec.europa.eu/capital-markets-union-and-financial-markets/company-reporting-and-auditing/company-reporting/corporate-sustainability-reporting_en

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Neural Alpha is a London-based data and technologycompany specialising in AI-driven analytics for sustainable finance. Our platformleverages cutting edge AI and Data Science technologies to analyse corporateperformance at scale for financial institutions, corporates, consultancies& NGOs.

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#ESA #SpaceForSustainability #ClimateTech #Greenwashing#EarthObservation #ESG #SustainableFinance

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