ESPI Director, H. Ludwig Moeller, announcing the Vision Paper at 00:37:00-00:42:00
On the sidelines of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Living Planet Symposium, the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) has released a new report, “A Policy Vision for Earth Observation: Food, Water, Energy, Democracy, Peace Empowered Through Space“.
This new Vision Paper is informed by a high-level policy workshop held at the Royal Society, London, in April 2025, co-hosted by ESPI and ESA. This event convened Members of Parliament of European countries; former ministers of science & technology, environment, and finance; European Commissioners; representatives of international financial institutions; heads of national and European agencies; CEOs of space and non-space companies; presidents of foundations and NGOs. The Paper also leverages ESA expertise and ESPI research, which screened more than 300 national policies and 1,200 Earth Observation projects.
Following its publication, ESPI is committed to its promotion in the sectoral policy communities of interest. It is the task of a decade but requires immediate action that “will take a village”, as said by an African proverb.
Key highlights from the Vision Paper include:
Key sectors could benefit more from the use of Earth Observation, from Energy to Diplomacy, and Security
- Similarly, the delivery of public services could be significantly enhanced by the use of EO as part of digitalisation processes. Finally, sectors with already established use of EO such as climate resilience and the agrifood sector, show several use cases where the impact of Earth Observation can be improved: from traceability and safety of the food value chain to biodiversity protection or water management.
Immediate opportunities include:
- Strengthening Europe’s diplomatic action through development cooperation.
- Tackling water scarcity and reservoir depletion.
- Boosting production and profitability of a water-smart agrifood sector.
- Reversing Europe’s biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation.
- Securing energy, communications, and trade infrastructures in the Arctic and Baltic regions.
- Enabling cheaper, effective, and resilient urban planning.
- Reconstructing Ukraine with state-of-the-art and sustainable infrastructure
You can't manage what you don't measure. Earth Observation needs to be fully absorbed into policy cycles.
The value of Earth Observation is seen across the whole policy cycle
- From the formulation of sectoral policies to their implementation, monitoring, and review.
Through this new publication, ESPI puts forward a Vision for complementing scientific excellence in Earth Observation and technology developments with clear policy guidance
- Only in this way will the full integration of Earth Observation into sectoral policies be achieved, with scaled benefits for the implementation of such policies and the development of related industrial sectors.
To set a proactive policy cycle, innovation through the use of Earth Observation data is essential
The current dialogue between the space and policy communities should not only be boosted, thus seizing immediate opportunities for using EO to achieve priority objectives
- But it should also result in the full integration of space in sectoral policies and ownership of solutions by the respective communities. This will help Europe achieve a strategic advantage by positioning itself as an autonomous and strong partner on the international stage. This is a task of a decade that takes a village.
We're facing new times – times that demand we process more information and do so faster. Earth Observation is a strategic tool to solve real challenges in security, defence, and sustainbility. These times require us to align, act, and accelerate new policies together with research and innovation initiatives.
