Emiliano Kargieman - Founder and CEO - Satellogic.
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Few things unite humanity as much as facing a global challenge, and climate change is the defining challenge of our time.
While global leaders convene to discuss and debate solutions, how we measure and track the problem presents challenges we rarely acknowledge. Pollution estimates and models are based on production models of the world's most advanced economies. These countries can afford to measure at a local level using drones and aircraft, but local measurements are insufficient; greenhouse emissions are not a local problem.
Our actions — the sum total of what we've done in the past, what we do today and what we decide to do tomorrow — will impact the future of our planet and its inhabitants. We need a global solution to this global problem. Increasing global access to satellite data needs to be a priority.
With the data in place, what about the specialists to interpret it?
Technological advances have made access to satellite data more affordable. Organizations like the U.S. Geological Survey and the European Space Agency have adopted a free and open data policy, for example. Increased accessibility means more users can monitor climate change, improving our chances of success. Two major problems, however, are preventing the ability to make this data actionable and universal:
1. As pointed out by Einar Bjørgo, who oversees the Operational Satellite Operations Program at the UN, leaders of small and medium economies remain frustrated by the difficulties inherent to processing the data made freely accessible by the UN program.
2. Satellite data isn't valuable if you don't have people trained to understand and interpret the information. Local agencies require teams of experts to derive meaningful insights from geospatial data.
If more countries and organizations are to make significant progress on global initiatives, we need the right people in the right places to make sense of the data being provided.
Observe, Analyze, Act
With increased access to information and trained people interpreting it, local authorities will be able to set realistic goals in the fight against climate change and determine which goals will ultimately have the most impact.
Local authorities will be able to create models based on local measurements and parameters rather than developed economies' estimates. These models can serve as evidence for international organizations or agencies making investments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero.
For example, the Small Island Developing States (SIDS), the countries most likely to be affected by climate change, produce far fewer greenhouse emissions than developed economies. Globally, the annual average loss of GDP due to climate change activity is less than 0.5%, in the island nation of Vanuatu (one of the SIDS), it's as high as 6.5%. The main issue for SIDS is not the control and measurement of greenhouse gases, but how to best monitor the local consequences of climate change.
With access to satellite data and the means to derive insights from it, developing economies will be able to report changes with more precision and frequency. They will be able to more accurately measure changes in local sea levels, rates of deforestation and other potential threats to their economies and residents.
Lessons Learned From Other Crises
One of the many lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic is that high-frequency data dramatically increases the chances of a positive outcome. Having access to daily case counts, for example, allowed local and national authorities to make better-informed decisions. The data also helped scientists worldwide make better prediction models.
Likewise, high-frequency satellite data has positively impacted the management of wildfires and oil spills, and the need for this data grows ever more critical as extreme weather events and wildfires continue to occur more frequently. When these disasters occur, having access to the best data as quickly as possible is of the utmost importance. Spotting an oil spill is easy with satellite imagery, but crucial details such as the type of oil and its thickness traditionally require in-field verification. Collecting those measures in-situ is not an easy task, and it can be dangerous, not to mention time-consuming. Satellites equipped with multiple sensors can now inform in real time the crucial zones of the spill, allowing respondents to reach critical zones of the spill quickly.
Increasing access to updated and modern satellite data is one of our best tools to fight the most critical challenge that faces humanity. Addressing this challenge requires the contribution of nations responsible and affected by climate change. But we also need to provide the insights along with the data and train people on location to provide valuable data interpretation.
The pandemic demonstrated that access to current and centralized information helped make better decisions and reduce a global crisis’s economic and health impact. It is time to approach climate change similarly and provide consistent data globally so that every organization interested in planetary survival can join the global climate change efforts.
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