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

2. 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.

3. Integrating Earth Observations across Many Platforms and Domains to Benefit Society

4. GEO Partnership 105 Members

5. GEO Partnership 109 Participating Organizations

6. 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 ,
the United Nations System of Environmental and Economic Accounts, &
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.”

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

8. Usefulness of information increasingly recognized

9. Three Tiers of Development
Stockholm Resilience Center

10. Earth Observation Products & for SDGs
EO4SDGs
Earth Observation Products & for SDGs

11. 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;

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

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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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.”

17. 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

18. 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

19. GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI)
*152 Data Providers

20. 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

21. 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.