Australia to host 2019 GEO Ministerial Summit

News / 1 November 2018

Canberra, Australia will welcome the global Group on Earth Observations (GEO) community of practitioners, policy experts and decision makers for the 2019 GEO Ministerial Summit.

Ministers from GEO’s 105 Member Countries are expected to come together from 4 - 9 November 2019 in support of activities that enable the use of Earth observation data, information and services for better decision making across a range of crucial development and environmental issues, including the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The 2019 Ministerial Summit will be a major milestone in the second decade of GEO, as the first opportunity for Ministers to accelerate delivery of GEO’s Strategic Plan, endorsed in 2015 at the last GEO Ministerial in Mexico City, Mexico. The theme of the Summit is ‘Investing in Earth Observations’, reflecting the need for GEO Member Countries and partners to scale up delivery and focus on concrete actions.

On the decision to host this key event, Dr. Stuart Minchin, Chief of the Environmental Geoscience Division at Geoscience Australia said “Australia is excited to be hosting the 2019 GEO Ministerial. GEO has enabled a huge transformation in free and open Earth Observation data that Australians and the global community are benefiting from every day. Our Ministers are fully supportive of this Summit and we encourage other countries to engage their Ministers to join us.”

The Summit is expected to include a discussion of progress across GEO, identification of challenges and new requirements, and declarations of new actions and commitments by governments, the commercial sector, international organizations and others. The event will end with the adoption of a declaration underpinned by a commitment of resources to this longstanding global effort.

Ministers will have the opportunity to take decisions on topics of strategic importance for the future of GEO, make commitments to tackle transboundary and regional challenges, announce major new initiatives their countries are contributing to, and commit investments to support GEO’s work.

“Australia is an extremely active and engaged member of the GEO community,” said GEO Secretariat Director Gilberto Camara, “their Open Data Cube technology is transforming how we access and process satellite data, and the potential benefits and impact of this technology for low and middle income countries is only now becoming clear. It is fitting that Australia will host our next Ministerial Summit, and we thank them for their continued investment in our efforts.”

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For more information please contact secretariat@geosec.org