In the context of climate change, the issue of preserving and sustainably exploiting the oceans is becoming increasingly pressing. Space technology today offers unique tools to tackle this challenge, especially considering that the ocean covers 71% of the Earth’s surface and is essential to life on our planet.
Earth observation satellites, in particular, allow us to monitor the oceans, understand and model the mechanisms of their evolution, and provide operational solutions in various areas (coastal erosion, combating illegal fishing, monitoring protected areas, etc.). In general, 80% of the current indicators tracked by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) are provided by space technology.
It is in light of this crucial issue that the CNES (French Space Agency) is offering its international partners an initiative to strengthen the role of space in ocean preservation: the « Space4Ocean Alliance. » This will be officially launched at the third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC), which will be held in June 2025 in Nice. UNOC is currently the United Nations’ platform for highlighting state commitments to ocean protection.
Space4Ocean Alliance aims to contribute to achieving the UN’s 14th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), which seeks to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources. This initiative is intended to gain recognition at the UN level, enabling it to participate in international recommendations on ocean monitoring and understanding.
Sharing Applications and Services
The Alliance will bring together space stakeholders, space agencies, and international organizations to multiply synergies in order to find collective solutions for ocean monitoring. Specifically, the Space4Ocean Alliance will serve as both a forum for discussion and a platform for using spatial data to support maritime areas. It will facilitate the sharing of relevant applications and services for the oceans, especially to help emerging countries define solutions to the growing challenges posed by climate change.
Ultimately, the Space4Ocean Alliance should enhance the operational capabilities of the space community by further expanding the monitoring of essential ocean variables. To this end, the alliance could propose new scientific missions in the field of ocean observation, following the example of the Franco-American SWOT satellite, launched on December 16, 2022, which has been delivering exceptional surface water elevation measurements globally for over a year and a half.
On Wednesday, December 18, CNES organized an event promoting the Space4Ocean Alliance at the Musée de la Marine in Paris, with the aim of bringing together space stakeholders around this initiative. On this occasion, speeches and inspiring roundtable discussions gathered expressions of interest from numerous actors. This event marked an essential preliminary step before accelerating the Space4Ocean Alliance at the UNOC in June 2025.
Source: cnes
