UN/Austria Symposium 2023 - Space for climate action: space applications and technologies for sustainability on Earth

THEME

The 2023 UN/Austria Symposium "Space for climate action: space applications and technologies for sustainability on Earth" will take place from 12 to 14 September in Graz, Austria, as well as online.

This year's symposium is part of a series to discuss the important contributions of space applications and technologies in tackling the challenges of climate change. The focus of the symposium is to showcase the most recent initiatives, experiences and best practices in mitigating and adapting to climate change and supporting sustainability on Earth. This year's symposium will showcase country cases from Brazil, Slovenia and South Africa. Further to creating awareness of how Member States use space technologies, the symposium will highlight how the space sector is being adapted to reduce its own impact on the climate crisis through changes in space engineering practices and innovations, as well as regulatory incentives for their adoption. The symposium would collect ideas and contributions to define future activities.

BACKGROUND

The UN/Austria Symposium has taken place in Graz, Austria, since 1994. This year's symposium will be the 29th edition of this long-standing series. The symposia series has provided a forum for discussion between the different stakeholder groups of the wider space community, including the diplomatic community, the private sector and academia, as well as UN entities. The main purpose of the symposia remains to enable discussions and learning on the use of space tools and applications, with an interdisciplinary viewpoint, addressing technology development and policymaking.

Since 2020, the symposium engages in a series focusing on using space technologies, data and applications to address the unprecedented challenges posed by climate change, and in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13: Climate Action.

OBJECTIVES

The symposium has the following objectives:

• To promote the exchange of best practices and solutions to meet the demand and needs of developing countries in mitigating and adapting to climate change.
• To demonstrate how initiatives based on space applications have been successfully developed and implemented in different countries.
• To share experiences and explore how space-based services can be used to comply with or support policies about climate action according to national priorities, and how sustainability policies are being applied in the space sector.
• To present available toolboxes that have already been implemented through case studies or pilot projects at a country level to comply with regulations related to climate action, with the aim of encouraging the adoption of tested tools and approaches.
• To raise awareness of relevant space-related activities, services and cooperation programmes among different user groups, in particular government officials, the diplomatic community, UN and international agencies as well as NGOs.
• To report to the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space through the Scientific and Technical Sub-committee.

DATES AND VENUE

The symposium will be held from 12 to 14 September 2023 in Graz, Austria, as well as online via Webex. The venue is Graz University of Technology, Inffeldgasse 12, 8010 Graz, Austria.

REGISTRATION

Click here to register.

Deadline for registration to attend online: 7 September 2023

Online participation will be accepted until the maximum technical capacity of the web-based communication platform is reached.  

All registrants will receive the Webex connection details by 11 September 2023.

Registration for in-person participation has closed.

Registration is free of charge.

DRAFT PROGRAMME