PLENARY 4: Space Technologies for the Detection and Study of Climate Change

Location: Conference Room 4th floor Radisson Montevideo Victoria Plaza Hotel
Tuesday 22 May 2018, 14:15 – 15:30

Satellites are vital tools to help understand the mechanisms of climate change, in order to mitigate its effects and help societies devise coping strategies. Thanks to their global observations and the continuity of their measurements, they provide time series of extremely valuable data, which are the basis for several international climate-related programmes. Out of the 50 essential climate variables or ECVs defined by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), 26 can only be measured from space.
Tackling climate change and its impacts is a top priority as it was underlined during the One Planet Summit that brought together in Paris last December a great number of decision-makers from around the world with a view to thinking about how we can innovate to sustain and step up the pace of our efforts to tackle climate change and its impacts. It was proposed to work towards the creation of a Space Climate Observatory (SCO) as a response to climate change and its societal impacts. International cooperation is obviously a fundamental element of this endeavour. This panel discussion will address some key examples on how space technologies are useful to tackle the impacts of climate change both from institutional, academic and private actors. Il will focus on the role of international cooperation to address this challenge.