EU Space makes Earth Day every day

In celebration of Earth Day, EUSPA looks at how EU Space helps fight climate change and ensure a sustainable future for our planet.

Today may be Earth Day, but our planet requires much more than a day to heal, recover and sustain life for future generations. With increasing temperatures driven by climate change causing extreme weather, accelerated ice melt, rising sea levels, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse - what the Earth really needs is 24/7 support 365 days a year.

EU Space provides exactly that.

Here's 10 ways that the EU Space Programme helps make Earth Day every day.

Supporting Europe's climate strategies

The EU has the ambitious goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2050. Doing so requires significantly lowering carbon emissions - emissions that can be monitored from space. Here, Copernicus data can be used by policy makers to ensure compliance with regulations for abating carbon emissions.

How EU Space supports Europe's environmental policies

Forecasting extreme weather events

Authorities use space data to monitor and forecast extreme weather events and prepare for the natural disasters that often follow. With climate change set to exaggerate such events, European EGNOS, Galileo and Copernicus will be key tools that emergency first responders use for search and rescue, disaster relief and recovery missions.

Using EU Space to predict and prepare for the future of weather, climate and water

Protecting biodiversity and restoring ecosystems

Long used to monitor land and marine environments, EO offers numerous products and services for protecting - even restoring - ecosystems and preventing biodiversity loss. These include forecasting the impact climate change has on essential ecosystems, providing environmental monitoring and managing resources. GNSS, on the other hand, supports biodiversity and ecosystems by providing data for tracking animals displaced by habitat loss.

How Galileo High Accuracy Service aids Galápagos tortoise reintroduction

Reducing aviation's carbon footprint

European GNSS is helping the aviation sector reduce its carbon footprint. Having EGNOS-enabled approaches in all airports gives more choices for alternative airports, which means the distance to be flown could be shorter, resulting in less fuel burned and less emissions released. Furthermore, because EGNOS can help pilots better evaluate visibility conditions, they can avoid circling or diverting - two manoeuvres that burn a lot of fuel.

How EU Space helps aviation reduce its environmental impact

Facilitating sustainable micro-mobility options

Space technology can play a key role in building smart and sustainable urban transport networks. Galileo's highly accurate positioning and timing information is already being used to position e-bike sharing in places like Barcelona. The city's bike sharing programme has equipped thousands of electric bikes with Galileo-enabled receivers to help cyclists navigate in an environmentally friendly manner and to ensure the bikes are evenly distributed and available in high-use areas.

Connecting the transportation dots with EU Space

Cleaning up our oceans

EO has the potential to help detect and monitor plastic pollution across the oceans. Using data on ocean currents collected by the Copernicus Marine Service, in combination with other information, one can monitor how and where plastics enter the ocean and determine how long they have been there.

EU Space Applications to Fish Plastics Out of our Oceans and Rivers

A sustainable Blue Economy

Both Copernicus and Galileo are already being used to assess the location of fish stocks and to track the location of vessels to prevent illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing - a practice that not only costs the global economy between EUR 9 and 21 billion annually but also threatens our oceans' fragile biodiversity.

Partnering to promote sustainable fisheries and aquafarms

Supporting carbon offsetting

Copernicus data can support carbon credit markets in assessing the effective implementation of emission reduction projects and such carbon offset actions as renewable projects and the planting of trees.

Copernicus strengthening deforestation and biogenic carbon reporting

Promoting sustainable forestry

Forests play a critical role in the fight against climate change, which makes protecting them more important than ever. Earth Observation offers an unprecedented opportunity to monitor forest ecosystems from space and implement best practices in sustainable forestry.

How EU Space helps protect - even restore - Europe's forests

Enabling the energy transition

The EU Space Programme is a key enabler of Europe's energy transition. For example, using information gathered from Copernicus satellites and atmospheric models, the produces global irradiation models that the renewable energy sector can use to make informed decisions on where to best place solar panels and wind turbines. This renewable energy infrastructure can then safely inspect using the precise positioning provided by GNSS, while the smart grids that carry the renewable energy from source to switch will be based on the solid and robust synchronisation provided by Galileo.

Repowering the EU from space

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