Space technologies will feature prominently at this year’s Cop28 summit in Dubai, with space agencies showcasing different applications in the field of Earth science and observations.
“There will be dedicated events that will present what our missions do and what data can contribute in support to climate. Today, for example, we are working on over 25 climate variables in the context of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with these programs, and we will present the results of the climate variables,” Simonetta Cheli, who heads ESA’s Earth observation programme," told RFI.
Speaking about the increasing relevance of space technologies in the efforts to fight climate change, Cheli said Earth observation missions have important applications such as monitoring and better management of natural resources such as water resources as well as the ones which could become scarce.
“We can use the technologies and the data from Earth observation satellites to, for example, improve the forecast of agriculture, food security, and also everything that is related to natural disaster management,” she said.
Cheli said satellite technology is also used to monitor greenhouse gas emissions.
“For example, ESA’s Sentinel-5P Precursor mission can be used to detect individual methane emissions. ESA is also building two dedicated satellites that will look at anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions.”
