The European Space Agency (ESA) officially launched its Global Development Assistance (GDA) Climate Adaptation and Finance (CA&F) thematic activity on 3 April 2025. This marks the twelfth and final thematic initiative under the GDA programme, with a clear ambition: to mainstream the use of Earth Observation (EO) within International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and their climate finance instruments. The GDA CA&F activity seeks to strengthen global climate resilience by helping communities and ecosystems adapt to the impacts of climate change. It does so by extending the successful ESA GDA approach, based on agile development, user-centric design, and technical excellence, to the domain of Climate Financial Intermediary Funds (FIFs) and their accredited implementing agencies.
Led by Argans and in collaboration with Caribou, the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Environment Systems, GISAT, London Economics, Tecnalia, and Treemetrics, the activity involves a consortium of specialised partners committed to accelerating climate resilience and effective financial management through innovative EO applications.
While building on the proven methodology of previous GDA activities, the Climate Adaptation and Finance track introduces several notable innovations:
- New institutional partnerships: The activity pioneers engagement with key climate FIFs—such as the Global Environment Facility, the Green Climate Fund, the Climate Investment Funds, the Loss and Damage Fund, and the Adaptation Fund. These new partnerships require greater initial advocacy to demonstrate the added value of EO in climate finance.
- Cross-sectoral scope: The activity addresses a broad range of thematic areas, including urban planning, forestry, water resource management, coastal protection, and sustainable food systems. This diversity ensures that EO integration is both wide-ranging and adaptable to varying regional priorities.
Strategic and project-level integration:
- At the strategic level, the activity supports ESA in developing a tailored EO mainstreaming strategy for FIFs. This includes awareness-raising through workshops, webinars, and knowledge events, as well as capacity building via bespoke training materials for implementing agencies and their beneficiaries.
- At the project level, the consortium identifies real-world opportunities for EO integration within climate adaptation proposals submitted to the FIFs by organisations such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. Drawing from the co-creation model used in other GDA activities, tailored EO services will be developed to complement and enhance project design and delivery—while accounting for local capabilities and implementation challenges.
The ESA GDA Climate Adaptation and Finance activity reaffirms ESA’s commitment to enabling evidence-based, scalable, and sustainable climate action. By embedding EO insights into the heart of climate finance decision-making, ESA aims to ensure that satellite data becomes a standard component of adaptation strategies financed by the world’s leading development institutions.
