During a dedicated Earth Information Day, participants noted the importance of sustained and reliable observation systems for climate monitoring and reporting. For ESA’s Global Development Assistance (GDA) programme, this highlights the dual role of EO as both a scientific input and a practical resource that can support decision-making across national climate strategies, investment planning and risk assessments. This aligns with GDA’s support to international financial institutions (IFIs) in implementing EO information across the project cycle of development finance.
Two areas discussed at COP30 illustrate this growing operational relevance.
- CLIMATE RESILIENCE – A technical exchange hosted by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) explored how EO can support extreme-heat assessments and urban-resilience analysis. These discussions directly relate to ESA–EBRD cooperation under GDA’s Fast EO co-Financing Facility (FFF), including work in Sarajevo where satellite-derived air-quality information supports environmental and planning considerations. The interest expressed at COP30 suggests that EO-based diagnostics may become increasingly mainstream within EBRD’s broader climate-resilience portfolio.
DISASTER RESILIENCE – A separate session organised by the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) examined the use of EO for multi-hazard risk analysis and infrastructure resilience. This reflects a growing demand among development partners for hazard-exposure information that is consistent, comparable across regions and scalable. These requirements are closely aligned with GDA’s co-design approach, which aims to ensure that EO-based information can be systematically applied within IFI risk assessments and infrastructure planning processes.
Beyond these sessions, broader discussions at COP30 on forest monitoring, carbon dynamics and adaptation indicators point to an international climate architecture that increasingly depends on measurable, consistent and geographically comprehensive data. While these topics were not specific to GDA, they signal a trend that will influence how IFIs approach climate-related operations. As institutions expand their use of environmental and climate metrics, the value of EO as a source of structured, reliable and comparable information becomes even more relevant.
The UNFCCC’s Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice Draft Conclusions reinforced this broader direction by underlining the importance of sustained, independent and interoperable observations for greenhouse-gas reporting, adaptation planning and early-warning and loss-and-damage assessments. These priorities align closely with GDA’s operational focus and with the increasing demand from IFIs for transparent, consistent and cost-effective climate-related information. As the outcomes of COP30 confirm the growing need for EO-based climate information across policy and operational contexts, ESA GDA remains committed to supporting development finance actors with the necessary EO resources and capabilities.
