News

The DUP was present at the 9th Session of the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (Milano 1-12 Dec 2003)where delegations from across the world, totalling more than 5000 people, met to address the problem of global warming.

ESA started working in the area of environmental conventions in 2001, within activity known as Treaty Enforcement Services using Earth Observation (TESEO). One of the projects initiated - named : TESEO Carbon studied the potential of Earth Observation for supporting implementation of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Based on the results of this project, a DUP project, Kyoto Inventory , started end 2001 with the aim of developing information services supporting the national reporting on land-use change and forestry activities under the Kyoto Protocol. The services are to be demonstrated on a large scale - full or partial national coverage - for five European countries: Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Finland and Norway. The first results of this project for selected test sites within the five countries are now ready. In parallel, another project called Forest Monitoring initiated in early 2003 within ESA's programme devoted to Global Monitoring for Environment Security (GMES) services and equally (although not exclusively) addressing information services for the Kyoto Protocol reporting, has produced its first results.

These results were presented at the Ninth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC ( COP 9 ) in Milan 1-12 December 2003, where delegations from across the world, totalling more than 5000 people, met to address the problem of global warming.

In addition to organising an exhibit during the entire conference, as ESA already did at COP 8 in New Delhi last year, ESA hosted a side event entitled Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) from Space: Support to monitoring and reporting for Kyoto Protocol Annex I countries. Stephen Briggs, Head of ESA's Earth Observation Science and Applications Department, introduced how Space can be used to gather environmental intelligence before users of the DUP Kyoto Inventory and the Forest Monitoring projects presented their needs and motivations, what the projects have provided to them so far, their evaluations and their perspectives for the future. Dimitri Lalas, Director of the National Observatory of Athens, and Deputy Head of the Greek Delegation to COP9 commenced the briefings, followed by Lucia Perugini for the Italian Ministry of Environment and Territory, then Joseph Racapé of France's Interministerial Task-Force for Climate Change, concluding with José Romero of the Swiss Agency for the Environment, Forests and Landscape.