Session: B.01.04 | Time: 17:45–18:30 | Room: Frontiers Agora | Convenors: Alex Chunet (ESA), Anika Ruess (ESA)
Climate finance is no longer only about pledges and pipelines, it’s about results. On Wednesday 25 June, ESA’s Global Development Assistance (GDA) programme hosts Session B.01.04 – Accelerating efforts of global Climate Finance with EO: how ESA is partnering with the multilateral climate funds to spotlight how EO is helping multilateral climate funds deliver measurable outcomes. The 45-minute session, held in the Frontiers Agora of ESA’s Living Planet Symposium, brings together speakers from some of the world’s largest public climate financiers for a panel discussion on how EO is being integrated into climate investment planning and delivery.
Drawing on over 15 years of collaboration with International Financial Institutions, ESA will present how its new approach to partnering with the big climate and environment funds such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Global Environment Facility (GEF), Climate Investment Funds (CIF), the Adaptation Fund, and the new Loss and Damage Fund (FRLD) have been stimulated and are evolving through ESA’s GDA programme. These institutions are turning to EO for a range of applications, from pre-investment diagnostics to safeguards compliance and real-time monitoring of funded projects.
The session will feature representatives from GCF and the Adaptation Fund, alongside opening remarks from the World Bank. The Bank’s involvement reflects its longstanding role as an implementing entity and thought leader in leveraging EO for development. The discussion will explore how climate funds are now co-developing EO services with ESA under the GDA programme to strengthen accountability, improve decision-making, and deliver better results for vulnerable communities.
Expect insights into how EO is used to track land degradation, monitor water resources, and support food security and urban adaptation programmes—just a few of the high-priority sectors identified for deeper EO integration. The panel will also address the practical challenges of mainstreaming EO in fund operations, including data interoperability, user capacity, and funding alignment.
For ESA and its partners, this session is about demonstrating that EO has moved beyond the experimental. With ESA’s GDA programme acting as a bridge between EO capabilities and finance institutions, the groundwork is being laid for EO to become a standard part of climate fund operations worldwide. If you want to understand how climate finance is being reshaped by data, and what it means for the European EO community, this is the place to be.