CEOS accomplishments in 2011 and future challenges Enrico Saggese ASI 25th CEOS Plenary Lucca 8-9 November 2011

A chair’s feelings Difficult to single out achievements and future challenges in a moving and evolving landscape but CEOS is moving CEOS is a team There is progress in nearly all areas It is all in the agenda and in the expected outcomes of this meeting: this is the way the meeting has been organized

The outcomes Progressing in the CEOS contribution to climate to climate studies, climate forecasts and the set up of a climate monitoring architecture from space. The need for CEOS to ensure a visible and effective presence in an operational GEO common infrastructure and the associated data access and data sharing schemes Identify and quantify contributions of CEOS members to the Carbon observation strategy as requested by GEO Progress in defining the CEOS contributions to GFOI Integration of ideas from the data democracy initiative with the existing WG Education elements and activities To consolidate new initiatives and establish a way forward for all of them To acknowledge the results of the self-study and indicate the follow-on actions To acknowledge progress in the area of virtual constellations and endorse the new SST VC To prepare the CEOS presence for Rio+20

The GEOSS space component It remains a major engagement of CEOS It includes everything Progress to be achieved through individual initiatives A pattern is showing up – GEO is presenting a quite complete range of opportunities – CEOS is selecting an (expanding) subset in order to offer its support – By coordinating observation assets and data/products availability CEOS is in fact implementing several elements of the space component – Virtual constellations become the actual tools for coordination and data/product delivery – The building blocks of the space component are progressively in place – The process provides the basis for CEOS to be present in other fora: UNFCCC, RIO+20, etc.

Implementation of the GEO space component Tremendous advance – The example of the Climate WG coupled with the new role of constellations is showing the way ahead – CEOS is focused on delivery: this means Coordination of data providers and data sources Clear identification of products and “customers” Organized plan of observations and of data availability Visibility of available data sets through GCI

The « deliverables » issue CEOS is moving beyond the sheer data availability issue By concentrating on « delivery » CEOS intends to focus on initiatives; this means – Get away from blindly registering available data sets – Register only data made available for a specific initiative or application – Identify observation media useful to a given objective – Expand availability to higher level products and register them – Clear deliverables mean clear visibility

Progress We have been taking progressively conscience of this commitment to deliver This may well have been the main achievement of 2011 The terms of reference of WG Climate are a tribute to this act of taking conscience We have to reproduce the pattern for the other initiatives

New initiatives We have to review the criteria for accepting new initiatives – The new initiatives have to fit the overall objective of building the GEOSS space component – We cannot be content with some of us just “taking the leadership” – We have to identify what we want to deliver and how we can deliver it To whom When How – SIT, with the assistance of CEO, must be the guarantee that these simple criteria are applied

Before concluding In the last few years, and particularly in 2011, we have been asking ourselves several questions This meeting is a step on the way to finding replies Questioning ourselves, our commitments and our capabilities is a sure way to perpetuate our role

Conclusions The actual achievements of 2011 and the challenges ahead are evident from the agenda of this meeting A tribute has to be paid to all the agencies and the enlarged CEOS leadership team who have contributed to the discussions we are going to have in the next two days