Improved Legal and Regulatory Processes to Protect the Planet Professor Joseph N. Pelton Exec. Board, International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety

Environmental Limitations are Key The United Nations, first in the Millennial Development Goals and now the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, has set forth some important and lofty objectives for the world community. But will they ever be achievable without recognition of the finiteness of the Earth’s resources and the “limits to growth”? Sustainable Development Goals, http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html

Lack of Recognition by Political Leaders Space systems are now key to achieving sustainability in the oceans, on the lands, in the atmosphere, the stratosphere, and in near and outer space, but this fact is not widely appreciated by political leaders around the world. Half of the key indices to monitor climate change depend on Earth Observation.

An Environmental Biosphere Mandate This Mandate seeks to present a unified and interdisciplinary approach to achieving environmental sustainability for planet Earth. It seeks to accomplish 4 things: It seeks to underscore how the various UN 2030 goals are closely interrelated and that only an integrated and interdisciplinary approach to overall sustainability will be successful. Piecemeal approaches are doomed to failure;

Goals of Mandate Continued The various UN goals and implementation strategies can be at times self-contradictory to achieving long term sustainability. Thus an integrated approach must identify these competing objectives and seek to make them reinforcing instead of contradictory; It sets forth a technical, operational, economic, and legal and regulatory framework that will be required to achieve planetary sustainability with a prime focus on environmental and demographic equilibrium.

Looking at SDGs in an Integrated way the following UN SDGs are key to environmental sustainability of the Planet and human life on it. (i) Clean Water (Goal 6); Affordable and Clean Energy (Goal 7); Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (Goal 9); Sustainable Cities and Communities (Goal 11); Responsible Consumption and Production (Goal 12); Climate Action (Goal 13); Life below Water (Goal 14); and Life on Land (Goal 15). What is not as clear is thata ll the other goals, if not integrated with environmental sustainability objectives, can be counterproductive on the environmental front.

An Environmental Biosphere Mandate The United Nations and Key Nations of the World Should Immediately Initiate an Integrated and Interdisciplinary Approach to the Study and Understanding of the Means to Achieve Environmental Sustainability The United Nations and Key Nations of the World Assisted by Aerospace Industries, Universities and Research Institutions and the International Academy of Astronautics the International Astronomical Union Should Seek to Prepare Detailed Reports and Findings abou How to Enhance the Use of Space Systems to Achieve Environmental Sustainability

Mandate (continued) The United Nations and Key Nations of the World, Assisted by Global Expertise Should Collectively Form a Study Commission that Probes How Environmental Sustainability Is Affected by the Six Drivers of Global Change These prime drivers of change are:(i) Demographics(D) (ii) Environment(E) (iii) Governmental, Economic & International Regulatory Policy(G) (iv)Societal and Cultural Norms (S) (v) Energy (E), and (vi) Technology and Innovation (T)(

Conclusions The 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN are a significant achievement, but there is still a lack of coherence and areas where the goals are not consistent with each other. An Environmental Biosphere Mandate that recognizes the areas of overlap and potential conflict could ultimately advance all of these goals being achieved and allow space systems to provide maximum benefit.