Welcome to the fourth edition (January 2024) of the newsletter from the PROTECT project that provides an update on the developments in the market regarding climate services based on Earth Observation (EO). The focus is on five application domains, namely: Energy & Utilities, Sustainable Urban Communities, Agriculture, Forestry and other Land use, Marine and Coastal Environments and Civil Security and Protection. 

Market Updates

The following section provides updates on the current developments, news and evolution of the Earth observation market, particularly with regard to the evolution of climate services relevant for the public authorities in Europe. 

Energy & Utilities

  • AiDash has raised $50 million to build satellite data enabled monitoring solutions to protect critical infrastructure globally from climate-related threats such as wildfires, floods, hurricanes and other extreme weather events; 
  • Spanish startup Sateliot, which is planning to launch a constellation of satellites for providing connectivity in remote areas to serve the mining sector, has raised €6 million and is looking to raise more funds to scale up; 
  • The European Union will place methane emissions limits on Europe’s oil and gas imports from 2030, which will be tracked by using satellite data.  

Sustainable Urban Communities

  • The Copernicus Climate Change Service, part of the EU’s Copernicus programme, announced that December 2023 was the warmest December on record globally, making 2023 the warmest year since records began.  

Agriculture, Forestry and other Land use

  • UP42, a geospatial developer platform, and OroraTech, the leader in space-based thermal intelligence, have signed a partnership agreement to grant easy and fast access to global data to monitor wildfires; 
  • Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative and the Bezos Earth Fund are joining forces to continue to provide access to high-resolution satellite imagery of the tropics, with data from satellite companies including Planet, Airbus and KSAT; 
  • Fairtrade International, a non-profit focused on sustainable agriculture is teaming up with Dutch startup Satelligence, for EO-based monitoring of farms of all certified cocoa- and coffee-producing organisations globally. 

Marine and Coastal Environments

  • Google’s DeepMind released an AI-based model that can deliver faster and more accurate weather land-based and ocean-based forecasts than the gold-standard weather model from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). 

Civil Security and Protection

  • Japan has launched a new satellite focused on improving disaster preparedness in the country, but also around the world. 

Summary

While January is usually a quieter month, this one saw several updates regarding the increasing importance and the use of EO for climate-related events. Governments remain the largest stakeholder and enabler in the development of EO solutions for climate monitoring, through launching new satellites and setting up policies to track environmental changes. However, the role of the private sector continues to expand especially as commercial EO companies continue to launch more satellites and build EO-enabled products to monitor climate change and support organisations with protecting their assets. The market continues to evolve as more public-private partnerships are formed to develop climate services that take advantage of the capabilities of both sectors, providing end-users with the best digital solutions for climate. 

Events

We would like to invite all our partners and interested authorities and suppliers to the special PROTECT Final Event, in collaboration with EARSC EXPANDEO in Brussels on 11 June 2024. Click the image for all information:

PROTECT at EXPANDEO 2024