United Kingdom

Group on Earth Observations – GEO Week 2022

Statement of the United Kingdom 

The UK welcomes its continued engagement with GEO and the opportunity to contribute to its governance, working groups, and multiple Work Programme initiatives and activities including most recently the Post-2025 Working Group. We continue to recognise the significant benefits that this engagement brings for all members, through building international collaborations, discussions on analysis ready data and open science, and lessons learnt from other countries, as well as welcoming the opportunity to share our own successes and innovations as part of a global collaboration to address current and emerging challenges.  

Climate:

When the GEO Plenary met in 2021, the UK had just hosted United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 26th Convention of the Parties (COP26), in Glasgow, where nearly 200 countries agreed the Glasgow Climate Pact to keep 1.5C alive and finalise the outstanding elements of the Paris Agreement. We now meet immediately ahead of UNFCCC COP27, with the UK passing the Presidency to the Government of Egypt, which has set out its vision for ambitious scaled-up adaptation efforts, climate finance, and mitigation. The UK supports the focus of COP27 on collective action for implementation and continues to support the Egyptian Presidency as it seeks to build on the outcomes of COP26, including through support to the Glasgow-Sharm el-Sheikh Work Programme on the Global Goal on Adaptation.  The UK also recognises the continued role of GEO in providing inputs to the Research and Systematic Observations discussions of the UNFCCC and its contribution in promoting climate action by governments using EO data and products that provide reliable, timely and accurate information.  

There is huge potential for Earth Observations (EO) to support work that builds on the outcomes of COP26, and for EO to facilitate progress and inform discussions as we look towards COP27.  The UK remains dedicated to being at the forefront of EO technology, research and collaboration, working with existing and developing new partnerships. At COP26 the UK Space Agency (UKSA) began a strategic mapping exercise with the UN Office Outer Space Affairs to review the international bodies involved in both space and climate work; this report will be published at COP27. UKSA has also funded a study to develop a framework for the standardisation of the analysis of methane measurements from space to underpin climate decision making, recognising the significant impact that methane has as a Greenhouse Gas (GHG). 

Satellite-based EO can provide measurement of atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane concentrations regionally and globally. Although current missions do not track anthropogenic sources and sinks for UK emissions, future missions, which promise more frequent observations and lower detection limits, are likely to change this as this is a rapidly changing field. Remote sensing has the potential to inform both top-down and bottom-up emissions estimates and reduce uncertainty in the GHG emissions inventory and could be used in association with other methods not only in tracking progress to meeting the UKs 2050 Net Zero target, but also meeting international and domestic reporting requirements if data processing and uncertainty analysis is standardised for all users around the world. In 2022, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has invested £5 million in new observational infrastructures for research into improved methods of verifying progress towards net-zero emissions at a national level. The aim is to support development of a pre-operational system with more significant capabilities for GHG flux estimation than previously possible through use of ground-based remote sensing, tall towers and EO. 

In June 2022 the UK signed the Charter for the Space Climate Observatory and is looking forward to working within that framework to share best practice on climate change actions made possible using data from space. Space4Climate, chaired by UKSA, will be the UK Focal Point to the Space Climate Observatory.  UKSA and other funding Board members are providing further funding over the next three to Space4Climate, which spans government, industry, and academia, uniting those with expertise in the development of satellites, analysis and exploitation of the data they gather, and the production of globally assured global data and climate services, and has welcomed Defra to the group. 

Forests and Biomass:

The UK has been a lead on a significant amount of above-ground biomass monitoring and change detection activities over the past year.  Recognising that effective and robust forest monitoring and Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) systems are a critical underpinning to the success of forest conservation pathways to achieve 1.5 degrees, the UK Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy held a concept-stage discussion to gain specialist insights into potential future UK support for MRV in October 2022.  This brought together national and international stakeholders, including the Global Forest Observation Initiative (GFOI), who provided critical inputs to the Theory of Change and Impact Pathway of the proposed Programme, which would look towards building long-lasting capacity for REDD countries to advance, align and implement fit-for-purpose, end-to-end MRV systems and access associated benefits (including REDD finance).   

SECO (Resolving the current and future carbon dynamics of the dry tropics) is a UK key strategic research project spanning 2021-2026 funded at nearly £2.7 million by the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) to estimate carbon fluxes across the dry tropics. The SECO research project, led by the University of Edinburgh with collaboration from more than 20 countries, will utilise radar remote sensing for over 600 forest plots to understand how the vegetation of the dry topics is changing.    

In a new UK-funded project through the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), IMPRESS (Improving Measurement for Payments to Reduce Emissions and Strengthen Sinks), University of Leicester and the National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) will support high-integrity forest monitoring in Kenya to enhance the country’s capacity to reduce GHG net emissions from the forest sector including forest restoration. The IMPRESS approach will also generate pioneering experience and knowledge sharing packages for other countries, include linkages on access to climate finance. 

Some of the other key strategic UK forest carbon activities include involvement in UK-partnership projects to create global and continental biomass maps, for example the University of Leicester team at the NCEO have led on Africa biomass maps as part of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) Roadmap. This can support global and regional stocktakes for the Paris Agreement.  

The UK is also pleased to be engaged with the new GEO-TREES project to validate biomass products through a Global Forest Biomass Reference System, with involvement of academics from Leeds, University College London, Sheffield and NCEO. The UK looks forward to playing a leadership role in the development of GEO-TREES, demonstrating the UK’s ongoing commitment and ambition for a science-led approach to combating climate change.   

Oceans:

The introduction of the Oceans’ Dialogue at UNFCCC COPs is a welcome recognition of the criticality of the Ocean-Climate nexus, which presents opportunities for greater application of EO in research to address the complex interactions between oceans and climate, understand the impacts of other pressures on ocean health, and support ocean-based adaptation and mitigation action.  

Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) is working on collaborative research with their international partners to develop global products of the pools and fluxes that are part of the biological carbon pump, with the goal to provide high-quality and consistent ocean-colour products to analyse ocean biological carbon cycle trends, and to provide an EO-based ocean carbon budget. This connects with the work of GEO Blue Planet, in which PML, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), and other UK institutions play an active role in linking coastal and ocean information with society. 

Agriculture:

The UK is also pleased to confirm a continuation of its Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) to the GEO Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative (GEOGLAM) in 2023, building on the work of GEOGLAM funded through Defra in previous years. The latest package of support has seen the development of decision-ready products to support early warning in agriculture that can be integrated into National Adaptation Plan (NAP) guidance for agricultural sectors. Launched during the NAP Expo at Botswana Adaptation Week in August 2022, this work provides practical guidance for applying EO in adaptation projects for agriculture and food security using the tools and information products available within GEOGLAM.  

Additional contributions of UK researchers to GEOGLAM includes the work from University College London and NCEO in collaboration with colleagues in China and Ghana, to translate a wheat and maize monitoring and yield prediction system for use in Ghana. The research utilised EO and data assimilation techniques to build capacity for food-crop monitoring in the northern regions of Ghana, where food-crop farming is vital to low-income households, women, and children. The Ghana dataset has now been made publicly available, and it is hoped the dataset can be a UK-Ghana contribution to the GEOGLAM data portal.  

Supported by Space4Climate and the UK GEO/CEOS Office, a research project focused on utilising EO to increase the UK food supply chain’s resilience investigated the benefits of space-enabled services, including an assessment of the applicability of GEOGLAM monitoring capabilities. The research identified that GEOGLAM has a key role to play in the UK and in global adaptation by stabilising commodity markets and preventing unrest in food insecure areas. It was also recognised that GEOGLAM’s rice monitor holds potential strategic importance for climate adaptation due to the vulnerability of the regions to climate impacts, and the uncertainty of climate impacts on the monsoon. 

Disaster Risk Reduction:

CommonSensing, part of the UKSA’s International Partnership Programme (IPP), has been working to deliver improved climate resilience, disaster risk reduction and access to climate finance through the use of satellite remote sensing technologies to support enhanced decision making in Fiji, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.  The IPP CommonSensing portal enables analysis of environmental features important for climate resilience, including shoreline assessments, digital elevation models, vegetation monitoring and monitoring of water bodies, as well as generation of cloud free image mosaics.  The project is now focused on ensuring its future operational sustainability and impact in the region. GEO supports this endeavour through partnerships that focus on the value of EO in responding to global challenges, and that enhance regional capacity with EO tools and data. 

The UKSA has been a member of the International Disaster Charter since 2005 and will take over responsibility of the Charter leadership in April 2023. The UKSA looks forward to welcoming Board Members to the UK in Spring 2023.  As International Disaster Charter members, UKSA ensures that EO Satellite data is accessible to Authorised users who activate the Charter during disaster situations, providing operational support and emergency on-call officers. UKSA also provides training and outreach activities on the Charter for Authorised users, Project managers and Geospatial specialists. 

Earth Observation and Geospatial Information:

As the UK looks towards growing the global value propositions for EO, Ordnance Survey is working with GEO on the role that foundational geospatial data can play to help unlock the value of EO for better analysis and decision-making for public and private initiatives, bringing the UK’s world-class geospatial community together with the EO. Yana Gevorgyan’s talk at this year’s Cambridge Conference (a community of National Mapping and Geospatial Agencies, NMGAs) highlighted the common challenges between geospatial and EO, focusing on translating the data into ‘information’ and changing data practices to make the most of the data that is gathered to support better outcomes. Consistency, authority and trust are key parts of an inclusive future data ecosystem that brings together, not just geospatial and EO technical expertise, but also policy officials, third sector and all aspects of our civil society.  

Recognising the increasing relevance and benefits of linking geospatial information and EO, Ordnance Survey and the GEO Secretariat also held a side event at the 12th Session of the UN Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM). This session provided NMGAs with visibility of projects from across the globe that link geospatial information and EO, and an opportunity to share their experiences of regional projects which need geospatial information to support the adoption of EO technologies. The session gave much to build on including consideration of the use of EO and geospatial information for authoritative monitoring and verification for carbon offsetting, bringing trust back into the system to release corporate finance for landscape scale restoration and mechanisms to increase transparency in global supply chains, enabling smart procurement contracts and green finance.  

UK National Space Strategy:

In September 2021, the UK launched its National Space Strategy, setting out the government’s long-term vision for the UK’s space industry. EO is firmly at the heart of the strategy, which recognises the importance of EO and international collaboration in tackling climate change.  It outlines the UK’s ambitions to lead in EO and remain at the forefront of EO technology and know-how. The National Space Strategy sets out how the UK will empower British space businesses to innovate and grow by unlocking private finance and through Government support of initiatives to position the UK at the forefront of international space research. Such initiatives include the Start Me Up Mission, the first British spaceport satellite launch, expected within months.  

The National Space Strategy also prioritises international collaboration, building on recent successes and seeking to establish new partnerships with global space allies. We remain firmly committed to CEOS and its ambitions which closely match those of GEO. It is the formation of partnerships like GEO/CEOS that are critical for sharing trusted data and best practice to inform decisions that will benefit the environment. 

New EO Space Missions:

The UK looks forward to the launch of the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission, a collaboration between NASA, CNES, UKSA, and Canadian Space Agency. Having recently passed final testing, the launch of SWOT is planned for December 2022, with the mission aiming to provide the first global survey of Earth's surface water, observe the fine details of the ocean's surface topography, and measure how water bodies change over time. The mission will be calibrated by comparison to in situ measurements in the Bristol Channel.  

The work in partnership with CNES (France) on the MicroCarb mission is progressing well and will be the first European Satellite dedicated to measuring atmospheric carbon dioxide. The build phase is almost complete, with launch expected in the next year.   

The UK is a major funder of the European Space Agency (ESA) and its EO programmes. The ESA Council of Ministers 2022 takes place in November, with an ambitious EO package, including the new Climate Change Initiative (CLIMATE SPACE), and a Future EO programme which includes the Earth Explorer and Scout missions, Copernicus, Aeolus and DTE. The TRUTHS mission has also passed a major international science review and will be up for subscription as well. TRUTHS will be the first ‘measurement standard reference’ in space and will allow a step change in the accuracy in our understanding of Earth radiation balance and its contribution to climate change. It will also improve the performance and interoperability of other satellites through provision of high accuracy reference calibration from space.    

Looking ahead:

The UK welcomed Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Statement approved during GEO-17, recognizing the leadership role of Dr Nathalie Pettorelli of the Zoological Society of London as Chair of the EDI working group. The UK also welcomes the opportunity for virtual participation at GEO-18, which is enabling a broader engagement from the UK and globally and making the GEO Week a more inclusive event. While appreciating the value of in-person meetings, we encourage the Secretariat to continue to offer such hybrid meetings to enable inclusivity.  

We also look forward to GEO-19 and the Ministerial Meeting in Cape Town in 2023 and the opportunity to consider GEO’s role, vision and strategy beyond 2025, with the recognition that in a rapidly changing EO landscape the opportunities are manifold but renewed and innovative approaches will be required.  We remain committed to engaging with the GEO Secretariat in taking this work forwards.   

EO continues to have a huge potential to facilitate progress and inform decisions to address the global challenges we face today, providing reliable and credible science as the world tackles climate change, biodiversity loss, natural and man-made disasters etc. The UK remains dedicated to being at the forefront of EO technology, research and collaboration, working with existing and developing new partnerships and to continuing its strong relationship with GEO to support our collective ambitions.   

Dr Robert Bradburne,

UK GEO Principal and Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser,

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, UK