The Space for Climate Observatory, or SCO, is an international initiative launched in 2019 to combat and adapt to the impacts of climate change using satellite data.
Bringing together a range of public and private entities involved in the Earth observation sector, the SCO brings together and coordinates efforts to develop operational tools aimed at political decision-makers and the general public for monitoring, mitigating and adapting to the impacts of climate change at local level.
History
Context and issues
The work of the IPCC establishes that human activity is responsible for the climate change observed by scientists. Higher temperatures, more frequent extreme weather events, rising sea levels and melting ice are some of the most visible signs, confirmed by space-based observations of essential climate variables (ECVs). Again according to the IPCC reports, the predicted increasing changes will have a cascade of consequences: severe weather phenomena, the effects of extreme heat, problems with water and food supplies, degradation of the environment and quality of life, increased air pollution, impacts on water quality, health problems, increased social inequalities, fires, drought, and so on.
As international efforts focus heavily on mitigating climate change, the SCO concentrates on adapting territories to the effects of climate change by providing tools and support for decision-making at local/regional/national level. To achieve this, the projects developed by the SCO mobilise spatial, in situ and socio-economic data to provide local decision-makers with tools for forecasting, analysing and monitoring the impacts of climate change in a wide range of areas, such as retreating coastlines, urban heat islands, water management, agriculture, flooding and extreme weather events, etc.
Preparation, from 2015 to 2019
In September 2015, at the summit of heads of space agencies organised by the International Academy of Astronautics in Mexico, a declaration affirmed the need to strengthen international cooperation and take full advantage of Earth observation satellites to observe climate change and monitor the commitments made to mitigate its effects.
On 12 December 2015 at COP21, 195 countries signed the Paris Agreement to contain, by 2100, the rise in global temperature to well below 2 °C, and if possible below 1.5 °C compared to pre-industrial levels. In 2016, space agencies from around the world ratified the New Delhi and Marrakech declarations to develop a common system for measuring greenhouse gas concentrations and one for the water cycle.
On 11 December 2017, 25 of them initialled the Paris Declaration in favour of a Space Climate Observatory. The creation of the SCO was ratified the following day at the "One Planet Summit", a progress report on the implementation of the Paris Agreement organised by France. A first demonstrator was presented at the Toulouse Space Show on 28 June 2018.
Birth and growth
After an initial coordination meeting in February 2019, on 17 June 2019, 22 space agencies and international organisations sign the Joint Declaration of Interest for the SCO at the Paris-Le Bourget International Air Show (France). The first International Steering Committee meeting will be held on 22 October 2019, in conjunction with the 70th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Washington (USA).
As the instigator of the initiative, France is launching the first call for SCO projects in September 2019 and will label the first 20 projects in March 2020. A number of projects have become emblematic of the SCO approach, such as the TropiSCO platform to monitor tropical deforestation in real time, FLAude and its FORO tool to improve flood resilience, ALEOFEU to prevent the risk of forest fires, EO4Wetlands to renaturalise wetlands, and SCOLive, which uses the olive tree as a bioindicator of climate change.
The founding Charter of the SCO, drawn up by all its members under the coordination of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), will be ratified on 27 June 2022 and will enter into force on 1 September 2022.
Mission
General objectives
The SCO supports the development of a set of operational tools for policy-makers and the general public, taking full advantage of satellite, in situ and socio-economic data to enable the implementation of policies to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change at local level. These tools, which are co-constructed with their users to respond precisely to local needs, must be easily transferable to other regions facing the same challenges.