Credit: EUMETSAT

United Nations organizations are making full use of space-based technologies in a shared quest to enhance our ability to manage planet Earth and to address the critical challenges facing the human condition.

“Climate change threatens to have a catastrophic impact on ecosystems and the future prosperity, security and well-being of all humankind,” explains Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations.

The potential consequences of climate change extend to virtually all aspects of sustainable development – from food, energy and water security to broader economic and political stability, Ki-Moon notes.

To help sort out the complex nature of possible climate change, global observing systems — including those from space — play an important role in helping to gauge these possible threats.

A new UN publication describes how United Nations organizations use the information provided by space-based technologies to monitor the Earth’s climate system and support decision-making about climate change adaptation, prediction and mitigation.

United Nations organizations are making full use of space-based technologies in our shared quest to build a safer, better world for all.

To access the report: Space and Climate Change: Use of Space-based Technologies in the United Nations System, go to:

http://www.unoosa.org/pdf/publications/WMO-1081-SCCE.pdf

By Leonard David