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(13 December 2010). The climate summit in Cancun, Mexico, last week agreed a package that will set up a new green climate fund for adapting to climate change, transferring technology to developing countries and reducing emissions by avoiding deforestation and forest degradation.

Although countries made voluntary commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, they acknowledged that they still fall short of what climate scientists say is needed to keep the global average temperature rise below 2°C.

Over the last five years, the ESA GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) Forest Monitoring team has been working with national authorities, first in Cameroon and Bolivia and more recently in the Republic of Congo and Gabon, to include forest-cover monitoring by satellites within their national Reducing Emissions by avoiding Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) programmes.

The GMES Forest Monitoring team is led by GAF AG and funded by ESA, the German Development Agency and the German Development Bank.

In Cancun, the Cameroon government presented results of its REDD+ pilot project, reporting on national and sub-national projects as well as regional coordination through the Commission de Forets D’Afrique Central (COMIFAC).

In Cameroon, where forest degradation is more important than deforestation, wall-to-wall satellite maps of forest cover were combined with field data to establish reference emission levels and demonstrate the feasibility of a monitoring, reporting and verification process for REDD+.

A key factor in the project’s success was the exchange of expertise between teams from Bolivia and Cameroon.

Also at Cancun, the minister representing the Republic of Congo welcomed the use of satellite data for national REDD+ projects in his country and highlighted the importance of training and building-up local capacity.

In Gabon, the government is cooperating with France and Brazil to establish a national agency that will use satellite observations for monitoring changes in both forest coverage and carbon storage levels in Gabon and the Congo Basin.

These developments from Cancun highlight the important role that satellite observations of the world’s forests will play in enabling developing countries to implement this new policy.

ESA and partner space agencies are already working together to ease access to data from their satellites through the Group on Earth Observations’ Forest Carbon Tracking initiative.

ESA’s GMES Sentinel-2 mission, with two satellites to be operated over 15–20 years (the first to be launched in 2013), aims to ensure high-quality global observations of forest cover will be continuously available for the future.

The free and open data policy approved by ESA Member States for the Sentinel missions will greatly facilitate these efforts by guaranteeing open and transparent access to systematic monitoring of tropical forests, for everyone.

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This consultation is part of an impact assessment on a possible Commission proposal for an EU Space Programme concentrating on the protection of space infrastructures and space exploration. The objective of the consultation is to obtain the views of the European public, as well as concerned European stakeholders, on the adequacy and the scope of possible EU measures in these fields.

Policy field

Enterprise: space

Target groups

All citizens and organisations are welcome to contribute to this consultation. Contributions are particularly sought from space policy stakeholders, including public authorities and space industry.

Period of consultation

From 03/01/2011 to 28/02/2011

Objective of the consultation

This consultation is part of an impact assessment on a possible Commission proposal for an EU Space Programme concentrating on the protection of space infrastructures and space exploration. The objective of the consultation is to obtain the views of the European public, as well as concerned European stakeholders, on the adequacy and the scope of possible EU measures in these fields.

More information and reference documents are available here pdf – 35 KB [35 KB] .

How to submit your contribution

We welcome contributions from citizens, organisations and public authorities.

• If you are answering this consultation as a citizen, please click here to submit your contribution.
• If you are answering this consultation on behalf of an organisation, please click here to submit your contribution.
• If you are answering this consultation on behalf of a public authority, please click here to submit your contribution.

Replies can be given to all or simply to parts of the questionnaire.

View the consultation background document

Background document to the public consultation concerning a possible EU Space Programme pdf – 35 KB [35 KB]

View the questionnaire

Questionnaire

Contact details

Responsible service: European Commission, DG Enterprise and Industry, Space Policy and Coordination
E-mail:entr-consultation-spaceIA@ec.europa.eu
Postal address: European Commission, DG Enterprise and Industry, Room 9/40 Breydel Building, 45 Avenue d’Auderghem, 1049 Brussels

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In the interests of transparency, organisations have been invited to provide the public with relevant information about themselves by registering in the Interest Representative Register and subscribing to its Code of Conduct. If the organisation is not registered, the submission is published separately from the registered organisations.

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The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), launched in to service a Regional Cooperative Mechanism on Drought Monitoring and Early Warning in Nanjing, China.

The Mechanism provides satellite products for general drought monitoring and higher resolution products for identified high drought risk areas, and assists its members in developing localized products and services for relevant decision making. Space capable countries in the region committed to provide satellite information based technical services through the Mechanism, to drought prone ESCAP member countries to help them achieve effective monitoring and early warning of drought events so that the Governments and relevant stakeholders will have more lead time to take measures in preventing drought hazards become major disasters.

For more information please visit:
UNESCAP

or contact:
Mr. Guoxiang Wu
ESCAP Information and Communications Technology and Disaster Risk Reduction Division
Tel: +66-2-288-1456
Email: wugu@un.org

For full article go to: Preventionweb

The small satellite constellation for environment and disaster monitoring and forecasting (SSCEDMF) is an important component of China’s earth-observation satellite system.

SSCEDMF is being deployed in two stages. On 6 September 2008, two optical satellites, Huan Jing (HJ)-1-A and B, were successfully launched. Each carries three main sensor types, including wide-coverage CCD cameras, IR sensors (IRSs), and a hyperspectral imager. Both HJ-1-A and B carry dual CCDs that image four bands with a spatial resolution of 30m. Each image is 360km wide. HJ-1-A also carries a hyperspectral imager capable of imaging 115 bands from 0.45 to 0.95μm with average spectral and spatial resolutions of 5nm and 100m, respectively, and 50km image width. HJ-1-B carries a four-band IRS with two near-IR and one mid-IR band, each with 150m resolution, and one thermal band of 300m resolution.

China’s National Committee for Disaster Reduction (NCDR) and the National Disaster Reduction Center of China (NDRCC) are responsible for satellite operations and management. From September 2008 to February 2010, NCDR and NDRCC organized sessions at educational and other institutions to carry out on-orbit test and disaster-reduction application capacity assessment.

In March 2010, the satellites were declared operational. To satisfy the government’s disaster-management needs, NCDR and NDRCC established two work patterns, one for routine daily operations and another for emergency response. Separate teams were established for data processing and applications of the CCD, hyperspectral imager, and IRS instruments. Background parameters and disaster vulnerability assessments are obtained during routine daily operations. When disasters occur, we activate the ‘Working procedure for emergency response with space-technology application against unexpected natural disasters.’ A satellite-observation plan is created to obtain disaster-area images as quickly as possible.

Source: SPIE and UN-Spider

The objective of the FP7 space work programme is to support a European Space Policy focusing on applications such as GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security), with benefits for citizens, but also other space foundation areas for the competitiveness of the European space industry.

This will contribute to fulfil the overall objectives of the European Space Policy, complementing efforts of Member States and of other key players, including the European Space Agency.

“Document”:j_wp_201001_en.pdf

The Europe-Africa Marine Earth Observation (EO) Network (EAMNet) project, funded under the space theme of the 7th Framework Programme (FP7), was launched on 20-21 July 2010 as one of the three projects supporting the definition and implementation of the GMES-Africa initiative. EUMETSAT participated to the kick-off meeting.

The 3-year project will seek to construct a network linking EO information providers, user networks and centres of excellence in Europe and Africa in the area of coastal and marine observations for sustainable development in Africa. The network will undertake capacity building and maintenance, and build upon existing infrastructure and expertise in Africa. The overall aim is to improve the exploitation of EO data for coastal and oceanic monitoring for an Africa-wide observation system, Global Ocean Observing System in Africa (GOOS-Africa). The project will provide an interface between European GMES-related core and downstream services, and research and development projects (notably MyOcean) and African initiatives like African Monitoring of the Environment for Sustainable Development (AMESD) with the emerging GMES-Africa initiative.

The project’s consortium is composed of ten partners in Africa and Europe, coordinated by the Plymouth Maritime Laboratory (PML) in the UK.

Thanks to EAMNet, some MyOcean products (GMES Marine Core Service), essentially ocean colour data, will be available operationally in near-real time to African users. These data and products will complement operational oceanography data already available through EUMETCast.

More information at:
http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/News/CorporateNews/800698
http://www.eamnet.eu/cms/

Source:GMES.info

On 16 June 2010 the whole European Parliament approved at first reading under the co-decision procedure the Commission’s proposal for a regulation on the GMES programme and its initial operations 2011–2013 (COM0223).

As a next step under the co-decision procedure, the legislative proposal is currently waiting for the Council first reading approval which is expected for this autumn.

On 3 September 2010, the General Secretariat of the Council published a joint declaration of the European Commission and the Council for the Council minutes for the adoption of the regulation on the GMES programme and its initial operations (2011–2013).

According to this document, the Commission will prepare the exploitation phase of GMES and will propose, in due time, arrangements for the GMES programmatic, financial and governance framework both for GMES as a whole and for its individual components as described in Article 2 of the proposed GMES regulation, in the context of the definition of the next EU Multi-annual Financial Framework. In this respect, the Council and the Commission recognise that the governance of the GMES programme should be considered as a whole and encompass all necessary structures and procedures.

Finally, it is stated that the Commission will consider how to complete the overall governance structure, through the presentation of a new legislative proposal on the GMES programme beyond its initial operations, during 2011.

More information at

Source GMES.Info

On 13 September 2010 the European Commission (DG Maritime Affairs and Fisheries) presented the Marine Knowledge 2020 initiative which aims to improve knowledge of Europe’s seas and oceans. In line with the EU 2020 economic strategy, the initiative is one of the three cross-cutting goals of the EU Integrated Maritime Policy.

The creation of marine knowledge begins with the collection of marine data, which are afterwards assembled, and then analysed to create information and knowledge. The Marine Knowledge 2020 initiative responds to the stakeholders’ need for a more coordinated approach to marine data collection and assembly, and describes an action plan to develop or improve existing EU policy measures in order to achieve this aim.

Three main objectives are proposed:
1. Reducing operational costs and delays for those who use marine data;
2. Increasing competition and innovation amongst users and re-users of marine data by providing wider access to quality-checked, rapidly-available coherent marine data;
3. Reducing uncertainty in knowledge of the oceans and the seas and so providing a sounder basis for managing future changes.

The Commission’s communication presenting the new initiative points out that GMES is among existing EU instruments contributing to better understanding of Europe seas and oceans. In this context, options for the marine core service of GMES are being tested through the MyOcean project. Products are available for any kind of use, including commercial (downstream activities) but excluding “uncontrolled redistribution (dissemination, e.g. broadcasting, web posting…)”.

As a concrete action aimed at enhancing the effects of GMES, the Commission proposes demonstrations of GMES marine services to be supported through the space theme of the Seventh Framework Programme until 2014.

More information at

Source GMES.Info

At the occasion of the General Affairs Council meeting that took place on 13 September 2010, EU Ministers adopted the proposal for a regulation on the European Earth observation programme (GMES) and its initial operations (2011-2013).

The adoption, which follows the agreement reached with the European Parliament in first reading on 16 June 2010, is the final step of the co-decision process.

The aim of the regulation is to contribute to the establishment of GMES as an operational programme, and to provide additional funds for its initial operations enabling a gradual build-up of capabilities until 2013, as well as to put into place the necessary structures for the governance of the programme.

The new EU law includes an additional EUR 107 million in the initial operational phase of GMES, as proposed by the European Commission in May 2009.

“More information at”: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/EN/genaff/116489.pdf

Source GMES.Info

On 15 September 2010, a high level political dialogue on “Space and Africa” brought together leading figures in the European and African space sectors.

The European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship and Vice-President of the European Commission, Antonio Tajani, and Jean-Pierre Ezin, Commissioner of Human Resources, Science and Technology of the African Union Commission (AUC), expressed in a joint statement satisfaction with the on-going cooperation between the EU and Africa in the field of space applications.

Firstly, the joint statement highlights the need for a future African Space Agency, which could initially focus on practical areas capable of producing benefits for the African citizen such as use of Earth Observation data to monitor weather, environment and climate change.

Among other issues, the joint statement underlines the progress made on the GMES and Africa initiative through the extensive exchange of contacts between the two continents. In this context, the ongoing preparation of a high-level strategic document to guide the implementation phase was welcomed, while the extensive work done for the preparation of a detailed thematic action plan was recognised. The action plan will facilitate the allocation of EU contributing funding for 2011 onwards, the definition of the EU Financial Perspectives 2014-2020 as well as contributions from other sources and the implementation in Africa of priority applications. Furthermore, EUMETSAT and ESA indicated their readiness to consider additional support for new projects emerging from the GMES and Africa initiative.

One day later, on 16 September 2010, a high level political meeting on “Space for the African Citizen” was organised by the AUC and the Belgian High Representation for Space Policy, in the framework of the Belgian presidency of the EU. The meeting focused on how space technologies can be used as a transversal tool to contribute to Africa’s global development.

“More information at”: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/10/414&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

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Source GMES.Info