Plenary 2: Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the Contributions of Satellite Communications

14:30 – 16:00, Popov Room

2015 was a successful UN year of utmost importance to envision the upcoming 15 to 20 years´ developments of society, environment and Earth:

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction
The Agenda 2030 with its Sustainable Development Goals
The Paris Climate Change Agreement

Whereas the Sendai Framework focus on disaster management and reduction and the Paris Agreement concentrates on climate change issues the Agenda 2030 with its Sustainable Development Goals forms the overarching oeuvre in that context.

The international community agreed on 17 SDG with 169 associated targets.

Giving a first taste of the foci of the SDGs, here are some keywords: end poverty and hunger, ensure healthy lives, achieve gender equality, sustainable water and forest management, combat climate change, education and capacity-building.

You wonder now about the link of Satellite Communications and the SDGs?

There are many – be assured of that fact!

Satellite Communications as well as other space-based technologies like Navigation or Earth Observation satellites are one of the main backbones to facilitate not only daily lives but they are also indispensable for a successful implementation process of the SDGs in the upcoming 15 years – including the monitoring of progress made over the years.

This determined our selection of speakers and discussion partners for the panel.

We gather high ranking experts in the fields of disaster management, climate change, tele health and tele education. They will elaborate not only on technical aspects but rather on the benefits of satellite communications for all these fields of application. Especially the benefits for the SDGs will be highlighted, the secret on how satellite communications can contribute to the implementation of the SDGs will be disclosed.

Come and join the Director of the UN Office for Outer Space Simonetta di Pippo, the President of the French Space Agency CNES Jean-Yves LeGall, the Director of eHealth and telemedicine at Geneva University Hospitals Professor Antoine Geissbuhler, the Vice President of Humanitarian Affairs Eutelsat Simon Gray as well as Professor Christian Heipke being Secretary General of ISPRS International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.