The European Space Agency (ESA) and the United Nations 2030 SDG Goals

Abstract

Since years, space activities, inter alia the ones of the European Space Agency (ESA) are an important tool serving development. In the frame of the corporate “Space for Earth” initiative aiming at presenting the ESA projects, services, applications or technologies along thematic or regional approaches facing similar challenges, specific emphasis has been put since 2016 on sustainable development as one of the main challenges faced on Earth. The UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) adopted in September 2015 are benefiting and can benefit much more from space tools, either for the monitoring of goals or for the support to the achievement of goals. In order to ease the identification of the relevant activities by potential users, ESA developed a catalogue listing its projects that can support one or more of the goals. The first on-line version is available since 15 March 2018. It will be regularly expanded with new ESA activities and activities from ESA partners. Discussions with the UN Office of Outer Space Affairs (OOSA) in the frame of the preparation of UNISPACE+50 led to the signature of a Joint Statement for further cooperation declaring inter alia the intent of the two Organisations to do a joint development of the ESA Catalogue and the OOSA Compendium. Further to the request of several ESA Member States, Africa has been agreed as a regional area for implementation of the support to the SDGs. In particular, the catalogue will be used to identify the existing space activities relevant for Africa (already done in Africa or that can be implemented also in Africa). The next steps of this initiative will include the expansion of the catalogue and the identification of “users” that could benefit from “space”, the inclusion of information concerning socio-economic benefits of the space activities, and the extension of the catalogue to the activities of other entities than ESA.