Earth Observations to Support the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, member countries of the United Nations adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, fight inequality, and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030. These goals have one hundred and sixty nine specific targets, and two hundred and thirty indicators that the member nations are voluntarily expected to report to track the progress in achieving them. Selected indicators and targets for several of the goals such as SDG-2 (Zero Hunger) via crop monitoring can be effectively achieved in part by using satellite remote sensing. To coordinate provision key earth observation variables to countries and the UN for monitoring the progress towards achieving the goals, agencies of the Committee on Earth Observing Satellites (CEOS) are working closely with the Group on Earth Observation (GEO). The goal of this effort is to develop partnerships among custodian UN agencies, and national statistics agencies in countries to collect metrics derived from remote sensing data using established methodologies and standards for implementation of the SDGs. This presentation will highlight examples from different CEOS space agencies in the use of satellite data to collect key geospatial datasets associated with selected SDG indicators around the world.