In the light of the European Commission President's upwardly revised climate ambitions, Josef Aschbacher, Director of Earth Observation Programmes at the European Space Agency (ESA), was keen to note during a telephone exchange with EUROPE on Thursday 17 September, the key role of the space sector - and, in particular, the European Earth observation programme Copernicus - in the fight against climate change.
Mr Aschbacher welcomed Ms von der Leyen's “ inspiring” speech. But “it is unfortunate that Copernicus was not mentioned in the speech and I think it deserves a more prominent role, because it is a very useful tool to help to meet the ambitious goals” he added, noting overall the absence of the space theme in the President's speech. For Jan Wörner's successor as head of ESA (see EUROPE 12555/15), the programme plays a decisive role in monitoring climate change and assisting in decision-making.
Replying to EUROPE, the engineer highlighted that Copernicus also made it possible to anticipate migratory waves by identifying, for example, regions hit by drought where the situation could degenerate (into civil war in particular). Copernicus can also track migration flows (but not individuals) or detect ships and vessels illegally navigating the seas and oceans.
As a result he could only regret that the EU budget dedicated to space policy had been cut by the Member States, and in particular the budget dedicated to Copernicus, which is over 2 billion euros below ESA's expectations (see EUROPE 12532/2). Hoping that the European Parliament would insist on a larger budget, Mr Aschbacher considered that, if necessary, other resources should be sought. “There are maybe options outside the regulation, in other budget lines, but it is to the Commission to identify”, he said.
Because, in his view, there is a very real risk that the EU will be left behind on the international stage. “I can tell you that in China there is very strong competition, a programme very similar to Copernicus, but with more satellites and much faster”. He concluded, “Europe has to stay ahead through innovation in order to keep this global leadership that we have build up over the last 20 years”. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)