The United Nations Science-Policy-Business Forum on the Environment will convene organisations from across sectors at GEO Week 2019 in Australia on the topic of Big Data and Frontier Technologies.
Organized by The Group on Earth Observations (GEO), GEO Week 2019 and the GEO Ministerial Summit will take place in Canberra, Australia, from 4-8 November 2019. Hundreds of delegates representing governments, business leaders, heads of international non-profits and passionate industry experts are expected.
During the conference, the Forum will be holding its Second Scoping Meeting of its Governing Consortium, followed by a High-Level Working Group on Big Data and Frontier Technologies.
Forum events
Second Scoping Meeting of its Governing Consortium, 4-5 November 2019
Members of the Forum’s Governing Consortium and key contributors will review the work programme and activities of the Forum for 2020-2022, including strengthening the Forum’s contribution to the work of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) and the convening of the Forum’s Third Global Session in Paris from 1-5 September 2020.
High-Level Working Group on Big Data and Frontier Technologies, 6-8 November 2019
The Working Group meeting is hosted this year by the Group on Earth Observation Ministerial Summit and GEOSCIENCE AUSTRALIA.
The outcome of the Session will contribute to the design of the UN data strategy and relevant UN-backed projects and platforms for open data and analytics on the environment.
Participants will come from top Space Agencies and Earth Observation Centres; Frontier Technology giants, start-ups and entrepreneurs; top UN officials, Presidency of the UN Environment Assembly; top decision-makers, scientists and strategists; non-governmental groups, citizen science leaders and finance institutions.
Working Group Members will also have the opportunity to contribute to the HL Ministerial segment and the Industry Track of GEO Week.
Why focus on Big Data?
In the Ministerial Declaration adopted by the UNEA in March 2019, Ministers from 193 countries mandated the development of a UN-backed Global Environment Data Strategy by 2025.
The unprecedented initiative comes after a year of relentless work spearheaded by the Forum and the UNEA Presidency to unite global efforts to leverage frontier technologies and boost access to Big Data, analytics and assessments for decision-making.
About GEO and GEO Week
The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) is an intergovernmental partnership of 105 Member governments, 127 Participating Organizations and thousands of passionate individuals and businesses that improves the availability, access and use of Earth observations for a more sustainable planet.
The GEO Week event, running 4-8 November 2019, welcomes Ministers from GEO’s 105 Member governments, business leaders, heads of international non-profits and passionate experts to come together and build on the 2015 Mexico City Declaration, and focus on accelerating the delivery of GEO’s Strategic Plan to scale-up the impact of Earth observations.
The week’s events will ensure that data about the planet becomes a core input to strategic decision making and key to day-to-day economic, environmental and development decisions.
Related links
- UN-SPBF Second Global Session
- Discussion paper: The Case for a Digital Ecosystem for the Environment – Bringing together data, algorithms and insights for sustainable development
- UNEA-4 Ministerial Declaration
- First UN-SPBF Scoping Meeting
- Work on Big Data gets a Big Boost
- GEO Week event page
REGISTRATION FOR THE EVENTS IS NOW CLOSED