Description :
In the next decades population growth is expected to amplify current pressures on critical resources such as fresh water or food, intensify the stress on land and marine ecosystems and increase environmental pollution and its impacts on health and biodiversity. These problems will be further exacerbated by global warming and the likely impacts of climate change in human activities and the Earth system. Europe has now an unique opportunity to lead the global scientific efforts to address these challenges. In the next decade Europe will rely on the most comprehensive and sophisticated space-based observation infrastructure in the world, including an extraordinary and complementary suit of sensors on board of the Copernicus Sentinels series, the ESA’s Earth Explorers, the coming meteorological missions and different EO observation satellites planned to be launched by national space agencies and private operators in Europe. Ensure the scientific community takes full advantage from this unique opportunity and maximise its scientific and societal impact is urgent and will require a significant collaborative effort and an integrated approach to science where the synergistic use of EO satellite data, in-situ and citizen observations, advanced modelling capabilities, interdisciplinary research and new technologies will be essential elements. Sharing this vision, in January 2020, EC and ESA launched a joint Earth System Science Initiative, formalised with the signature of a working arrangement between both institutions. The initiative aims at joining forces to advance Earth System Science and provide a coordinated response to the global challenges that society is facing in the onset of this century. To put words in action, four joint Flagship Actions have been selected for kick-off in 2020 (i.e. polar changes and global impacts, Biodiversity and vulnerable ecosystems, Ocean health, Extremes and climate adaptation). Additional themes are under discussion in important topics such as water resources, food systems, carbon or health. Implementation will be based on a co-programmed approach ensuring the coordination of relevant scientific activities, calls, and work plans initiated under EC’s Horizon Europe and ESA’s FutureEO programmes. In this session, ESA and EC (DG-RTD) will present the status of the initiative to the scientific community and will offer an opportunity to discuss the plans for implementation after 2023.

Speakers:
• Maurice Borgeau, ESA
• Philippe Tulkens, EC DG-RTD
• Jean Dusard, EC DG-RTD
• Gilles Ollier, EC DG-RTD1
• Diego Fernandez Prieto, ESA
• Nicole Biebow, AWI, Germany
• Johnny Johannessen, NERSC, Norway
• Jose Moreno, University of Valencia, Spain
• Vihervaara Petteri, SYKE, Finland