CEOS address at Johannesburg


 
 
29 August 2002
 
Stephen Briggs, head of ESA’s Earth Observation Applications Department, addressed the Plenary Session on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development at the WSSD Summit on Tuesday, in his capacity as co-chairman of CEOS, the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites.
 
“CEOS is representing all civil space agencies with major Earth observation capabilities representing 33 countries and major user organisations (i.e. WMO, UNEP, FAO, etc.). CEOS members include agencies from developed countries (e.g. Europe, USA, Japan, etc.) and developing countries or countries in transition (Russia, India, Brazil, South Africa, Thailand, etc.).

The European Space Agency (ESA), which chairs CEOS during 2002, would like to emphasise the following points on behalf of CEOS.

  • Observation from space is an indispensable information source for sustainable development objectives, such as the new partnership for Africa's development, agriculture, disaster management, climate change, environmental monitoring etc. This is well recognised in the current Plan for Implementation.
  • To support this action the Integrated Global Observing Strategy (IGOS) partnership, co-chaired by CEOS, has submitted a Type 2 Partnership on the use of space and ground measurements for sustainable development.
  • Space is not a tool only for developed countries; on the contrary, space technology serves many needs of developing countries, where access to information is often difficult or costly. This was highlighted in the conclusions of a Symposium held in Stellenbosch last week (UN/ESA/South Africa Symposium: Space Technology Provides Solutions for Sustainable Development) attended by 100 participants and co-chaired by the South African Ministers Buthulezi and Ngubane who recommended to put these conclusions forward to the WSSD Plenary Session.
  • Triggered by the WSSD, in particular in support of the need for capacity building, the CEOS members have submitted a Type 2 partnership on education and training.
  • Access to space data is a key issue to support development; data sharing between countries with space agencies and other countries will be one key objective of WSSD follow-up activities of CEOS.
  • CEOS, which coordinates the space agencies, has already planned a high level WSSD follow-up meeting in November 2002 where the outcome of the WSSD will be further discussed and actions concretised."

This statement was fully endorsed in the interventions that followed, made by the delegations of the United States and Japan.
 
 

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 •  ESA at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/ESA3I3ZPD4D_Protecting_0.html)
 •  ESA’s Chairmanship of CEOS (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/ESAOITG18ZC_Protecting_0.html)
 •  ESA highlights contributions of space imagery to disaster relief (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/ESA878OED2D_Protecting_0.html)

Related Links

 •  CEOS WSSD site (http://www.esa.int/wssd/ceos)
 •  UN/South Africa/ESA Workshop (http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/SAP/act2002/wssd/index.html)
 •  City of Johannesburg- WSSD (http://www.goafrica.co.za)
 •  CEOS (http://www.ceos.org)