Opening Remarks Work Programme Symposium Tshwane, South Africa 12 May 2017 Barbara J. Ryan Director GEO Secretariat

GEO Vision To realize a future wherein decisions and actions, for the benefit of humankind, are informed by coordinated, comprehensive and sustained Earth observations and information.

Integrating Earth Observations across Many Platforms and Domains to Benefit Society

GEO Partnership 105 Members

GEO Partnership 109 Participating Organizations

Strategic Plan: “GEO will supply the requisite Earth observations in support of effective policy responses for climate change adaptation, mitigation and other impacts across the SBAs.” Ministerial Declaration: “Affirm that GEO and its Earth observations and information will support the implementation of, inter alia: the 2030 Global Goals for Sustainable Development, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the United Nations System of Environmental and Economic Accounts, & the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.”

GEO Engagement Priorities 2017-2019 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Climate Change – Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Disaster Risk Reduction GEO-XIII, November 2016, St Petersburg

Usefulness of information increasingly recognized

Three Tiers of Development Stockholm Resilience Center

Earth Observation Products & for SDGs EO4SDGs Earth Observation Products & for SDGs

Earth Observation linkages with SDGs Goals, Targets, and Indicators Projects: Federated approach: Other GEO tasks also relate to SDGs. GI-18 serves a coordination function - guidance, consistent approaches, quality standards A series of pilot projects apply and test uses of Earth observations to support the assessment and tracking of the SDGs, including integration with national statistical accounts for the indicators. Projects: Include efforts to support qualitative and quantitative evaluation on the benefits of Earth observations to enable societal benefits. Some pilot project activities may focus on one country and address several SDG indicators; others may focus on a particular SDG indicator and apply it to several countries. particular attention to the ability to scale a method to multiple nations or stakeholders on a regional or global scale share smart practices and provide guidance, encouraging consistent approaches and quality standards Capacity Building draw on and contribute to GEO’s established capacity building activities and expertise includes virtual and physical activities, such as trainings, webinars, joint projects, applied research, and workshops, among many other successful capacity building practices Data and Information Products: support GEO’s efforts to promote and encourage open data policies Outreach: creation and maintenance of a portfolio of materials, such as examples, stories, articles, and web features. For instance, a series of thematic examples can articulate how Earth observations relate to specific SDGs and can be integrated with traditional statistical approaches;

New Report by EO4SDGs Team Case studies on how EO responds to SDGs Examples: Mapping Mangrove Cover, Urban Growth, Forest Cover Extent Available at: www.earthobservations.org

New Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs) The absence of a stand-alone climate SBA in the GEO decade 2016-2025 is a testament to the overarching importance of climate and its relevance to all SBAs. Climate change and its impacts cut across all SBAs

Climate in the GEO Work Programme Community Activities Access to climate data in GEOSS Collaboration between GEO and GFCS Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) & Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS) Land Cover, Water Cycle, Floods, Droughts and others GEO Initiatives/Flagships GEO Carbon and GHG Initiative Global Drought Information System Climate Change Impact Observation on Africa´s Coastal Zones Information Service for Cold Regions

CEOS (GOSAT, OCO2, TanSat) Monitoring the Global Carbon Cycle: an ensemble of different players, countries, systems, networks, datasets, methodologies, rules, standards, etc. CEOS (GOSAT, OCO2, TanSat) GAW IAGOS IG3IS NASA CMS ICOS GEO-C builds on existing initiatives and networks; supports continuity and coherence, facilitates cooperation and interoperability; and fills in gaps for a globally coordinated analysis system for carbon and GHGs. GCOS GCP NEON ICOS TCCON inventories SOCAt ARGO IOCCP GLODAP ICOS GOOS Blue Planet … and many OTHERS! Source: GEOCARBON

GEO and UNFCCC GEO, including its implementation plan for GEOSS; “30. The SBSTA recognises the importance of: GEO, including its implementation plan for GEOSS; collaboration between GEO and GCOS; and of capacity building on systematic observation, inter alia, to enable developing countries to apply climate observations for impact assessment and preparation for adaptation.”

Informing policy agendas UNFCCC SBSTA-46, Research Dialogue, 10 May 2017, Bonn Contribution to Information Note Poster: “Open Earth Observation Data for regional climate research, mitigation, and adaptation decision making” GEO Statement

Informing policy agendas COP-23 Side Event UNFCCC IPC (Sep 2016) endorsed GEO having independent eligibility to apply for Side Events and Exhibits at future UNFCCC sessions ExCom Action 39.9: Secretariat to work with key partners (e.g. UNFCCC, IPCC, CEOS, GCOS, ICOS, etc.) to design a Side-Event at COP-23 Content to be defined with partners  Task Force Possible topics include: Carbon and GHG observations to support the implementation of the Paris Agreement Help for countries in their national reporting Role of (satellite) observations in the refinement of the IPCC Guidelines

GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI) *152 Data Providers

Challenges Access to data Broad, open data policies are needed for global monitoring and transparency Interoperability Data discoverability and access through federated systems Downstream services Applications and information are needed to make data useful for decision-makers Addressing policy agendas Support countries to implement the SDGs, Paris, and Sendai Agreements

Closing Thoughts Collaboration at national, regional and international levels is essential – hyper partnering, radical sharing -- e.g. creating interdependencies similar to interdependencies in healthy biological ecosystems; Broad, open data policies must be advanced to leverage existing and planned national, regional and global investments to optimize multilateral agreements; an SDG effort is massive, and must be used as a forcing function for transformative change.

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