The Space for Climate Observatory (SCO) provides tools to study and monitor the impacts of climate change at the local level by combining data from satellite observations with other sources.

Earth Observation data is an essential tool for ensuring the observation of phenomena linked to climate change (drought, floods, pollution, etc.). The Space for Climate Observatory aims to enhance the use of this data to improve knowledge about the state of our planet and make them available to the most vulnerable.

It has three major objectives:

  • Establish tools to support public decision-making;
  • Improve communication with stakeholders: general public, researchers and academics…;
  • Contribute to the objectives of sustainable development.

The first goal of the SCO is to facilitate dissemination of relevant, timely and reliable data, as well as information on the national and regional impacts of climate change, using space technologies, targeted measurements and models cross-correlated with socio-economic data. The goal is to develop impact scenarios, projections on how territories are likely to evolve and how populations will be affected to help decision-makers meet the challenge of devising coping strategies. Based on the principle of pooling existing data generated by international programmes (Copernicus, NOAA, Eumetsat, etc.), the SCO supports interoperability with local socio-economic data (on populations, urban development, protected areas, linear and local infrastructures, etc.) to give decision-makers a precise analysis of their territory’s vulnerability. The SCO is geared towards supporting projects designed to give authorities an operational tool tailored to their specific needs. Such projects are led by public-private consortia that guarantee the quality of data provided and aim to sustain services in the long term. The SCO is the first initiative of its kind to offer tangible assistance to territories by leveraging satellite data to tackle climate change.
 

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48 signatories

The international SCO today brings together 31 space agencies and international organizations - which account for 53% of CO2 emissions, - and 17 public institutes (France and United Arab Emirates) related to climate change, and counting.
Initially scheduled for 2025, the consortium's objective of deploying projects all over the world, impacting one billion people in vulnerable areas, has already been achieved.
95 projects have been accredited with the SCO label since 2020, of which around thirty have delivered operational tools (see the tools here).

The SCO operates through projects that respond to a specific need of communities and provides them with operational tools to answer it. The projects are managed by public/private consortiums that ensure the quality of the data mobilized and provide for the sustainability of the services rendered. 

The SCO is being deployed locally at varying scales according to the capabilities of nations and regions around the globe. National Space Climate observatories are set up in France, China, the UK, Gabon, Sweden, Slovakia, South Africa and so on (more information on https://www.spaceclimateobservatory.org/fr/sco-france). 

All national SCO offshoots are supporting the emergence and labelling of new projects within the guidelines set out by the international SCO charter. They are supplying expertise and network to propose operational tools for authorities and end-users.

The SCO currently has 95 labeled projects in its portfolio, in all regions of the world, on all subjects relating to climate change (agriculture, urban planning, biodiversity, coastal issues, etc.). An annual call for projects broadens its field of action.
 

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The SCO was officially launched by President Emmanuel Macron at the Paris Air Show on 17 June 2019. On this occasion, 23 space agencies and international organizations (European Space Agency, United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, United Nations Development Program) signed a Joint Declaration of Interest to bring the observatory into being, joined by over 15 countries in just a few months.

Since 2019, the signatory parties hold two steering committees a year. These exchanges have led to the adoption of the Terms of reference and its short- and medium-term roadmap. The two-year goal to set up an international charter governing how the SCO operates and how its signatories will contribute to it was enshrined in a multilateral agreement. Entering into force on September 1st 2022, the founding Charter of the SCO has been adopted by 47 signatories on June 2024.

The Space for Climate Observatory : https://www.spaceclimateobservatory.org/local-sco 

 

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