United Nations COPUOS/T.507

Committee on the Peaceful Unedited transcriptUses of Outer Space

507th MeetingFriday, 13 June 2003, 10 a.m.Vienna

Chairman: Mr. González Aninat (Chile)

The meeting was called to order at 10.17 a.m.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): I declare the 507th session of the Committee open this morning.

We will continue with item 6, which I hope we can conclude and then we will continue looking at item 7 and item 8. We will begin item 9, Report of the Legal Subcommittee on its Forty-Second Session.

At the end of the session, there will be three special presentations. Mr. Philippe Willekens of the European Space Agency who will be speaking on a seminar of experts on space and education. Mrs. Ruth Neilan of the United States will refer to the activities of the GPS International Service, which I think is also very relevant. And then subsequently we will have a presentation of great value by Mr. Michael Hales of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites, CEOS, on the programme of CEOS in follow-up of the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

Ways and means of maintaining outer space for peaceful purposes (agenda item 6)

We shall now continue with item 6 of the agenda and on my list of speakers, I have the distinguished delegate of India to whom I now give the floor.

Mr. M.Y.S. PRASAD (India): Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the exploration of outer space has led to the space applications which facilitated many beneficial uses to all countries, especially to the developing countries. Over the decades, the cost of space exploration had been coming down and the

technologies required for space exploration are coming within the reach of the developing countries. Space exploration and space applications have become today an important segment of development, which no country can ignore.

While the increased use of space applications is a reality, another contradictory trend has also set in, that is, the decline in the share of the market for the space field. The commercial launch services, communications through satellites, TV broadcasting through satellites are the sectors which are under heavy pressure due to competing alternate technologies and declining financial returns. Today, the available capacity is more than the demand in all these sectors.

Such a trend can be turned into opportunities in two ways. One is to create more innovative new applications using space systems which cannot be met equally efficiently by other developing competing systems. These innovative applications should also have a higher value to the development of society and create an appeal to developing countries for space applications. The applications like distance education, tele-medicine and disaster management have such potential.

The second is to organize more cooperative ventures between nations so that available resources can be used in an optimal manner avoiding competition in providing space-based services for social needs.

Mr. Chairman, the developing countries have a heavy stake for their national development and the space field offers a number of opportunities for a fast development. Hence, the developing countries will be the most affected in case of any disturbance to the use

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In its resolution 50/27 of 6 December 1995, the General Assembly endorsed the recommendation of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space that, beginning with its thirty-ninth session, the Committee would be provided with unedited transcripts in lieu of verbatim records. This record contains the texts of speeches delivered in English and interpretations of speeches delivered in the other languages as transcribed from taped recordings. The transcripts have not been edited or revised.

Corrections should be submitted to original speeches only. They should be incorporated in a copy of the record and be sent under the signature of a member of the delegation concerned, within one week of the date of publication, to the Chief, Translation and Editorial Service, Room D0708, United Nations Office at Vienna, P.O. Box 500, A-1400, Vienna, Austria. Corrections will be issued in a consolidated corrigendum.

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of outer space for peaceful purposes. Today, the most concentrated effort is required to create innovative space applications which have higher societal use and value. Meeting the aspirations of the developing countries is obviously linked to the development of new markets for new applications. Hence the long-term solution for maintaining outer space for peaceful purposes lies in creating more innovative space applications and to make more and more developing countries stakeholders in the space field.

Mr. Chairman, we will have to maintain the peaceful, responsible and international character of the space field. International cooperation and mutual confidence and understanding among the countries is essential to achieve the new creative applications. The Indian delegation considers the central role of the United Nations, especially that of COPUOS, is essential to promote these objectives. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): Thank you to the distinguished representative of India for his statement.

I now have the pleasure of giving the floor to the distinguished representative of the Russian Federation.

Mr. G. Y. BARSEGOV (Russian Federation) (interpretation from Russian): Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, space activities are one of the most promising areas for investing in high technologies, developing science and industry. Also in a very direct and serious way, it affects the area of international security and strategic stability. These facts require, on the one hand, implementing new ideas of cooperation for the benefit of development, and on the other hand, interaction for peace.

An integral component of that process has been and remains evaluating the level achieved in regulating space activities and defining the most promising directions for the further development of the doctrine and the practice of space exploration and the application of space technologies and techniques. Therefore, improving the agenda of this forum and its organizational paradigm, the paradigm that underlines our interaction here, is especially topical under the present circumstances. To some extent, changes for the better are already taking place.

Over recent years, this Committee has succeeded, and that is a fact, in making significant progress towards rationalizing its deliberations. I should note specifically the fact that the success of this

Committee and its new initiatives has been and remains based on the work of the Office for Outer Space Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat which is being effectively and dynamically led at present by Dr. Sergio Camacho.

Having noted these undeniable facts, we have to say, however, that it is also obvious that a lot remains to be done.

In the context of examining the ways and means of maintaining outer space for peaceful uses, we believe that the objective for all of us is to develop a clear logically structured, oriented towards specific results, methodology, a methodology that we would then use to cover this vast subject which includes many components of varying degrees of complexity.

We believe that, in spite of the remaining differences in approaches, we can realistically, on a basis of consensus, agree on a range of topics that are of practical significance and most consistent with this Committee’s mandate.

Mr. Chairman, it is well-known that Russia comes out for developing the doctrine of a peaceful, that is, weapons-free type of outer space activities, taking into account the new challenges facing mankind at the present time. This principled position leads to our policy which presupposes the inadmissibility of deploying weapons in outer space.

Mr. Chairman, during a visit last February to the Khrunichev State Centre for Space Research and Production, and that is a leading enterprise in Russia’s and the world’s space industry which makes an important contribution to supporting the international position of Russia in that regard. At a time of his visit to that enterprise, the Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, noted that unless right now barriers are erected to unlimited use of outer space for military purposes then the near-Earth space can become an area of unchecked rivalry and arms race in the future.

Russia’s policy is based on the understanding that any actions by space-faring States that would result in deploying weapons in outer space or any adherence to the concept of the use of force in that medium would undermine the foundation and the logic, I emphasize that, the logic of the development of non-proliferation mechanisms for the entire system of international security. And we know what kind of danger that is fraught with.

This is the principled position of the Russian Federation. We would like to inform this Committee

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that, for our part, we are taking every effort to promote appropriate initiatives within the Conference on Disarmament as well.

Mr. Chairman, many of those present here are aware of Russia’s declaration as to its readiness to provide information well in advance on upcoming launches of space objects, their purpose and their principle perameters. This initiative is consistent with the 1976 Registration Convention and it is precisely the kind of measure that, if it is adopted by other launching States, may serve to promote greater trust and predictability in states space activities.

We would like to declare at this point that this information is already being made available on the website of Russia’s Foreign Ministry, in the Russian language, in the section “Russia and the System of International Relations”. And in the near future, this information will also be made available in the English language version of our website, www.mid.ru. And we also plan to resolve whatever technical problems need to be resolved to transfer this information to the website of the Office for Outer Space Affairs.

Mr. Chairman, the Committee’s work in the areas of science, technology and law allows it to play an important part in promoting efforts to maintain outer space for peaceful purposes. Taking this into account, we invite States, within the framework of this agenda item, to undertake a joint study analysis and seek solutions for the most rational and effective regulation of joint space activities. Exchange of experience in this area could impart a qualitatively new character to international interaction in this area.

Mr. Chairman, the concept of the Russian Federation’s national space policy adopted in the mid-1990s of the twentieth century envisages, as one of priority objectives, efforts to promote peace and international security, consistent support for the principle of all countries switching to exclusively peaceful uses of outer space. In accordance with this doctrine, we have been pursuing a policy of significantly renewing the objectives, principles, areas and forms of international cooperation in outer space. We note with satisfaction, Mr. Chairman, that along the way, good results have been accomplished. The theme of maintaining outer space for peaceful purposes also organically includes the matter of providing all necessary conditions for using all space technologies and techniques by cooperating parties, precisely for the objectives that they were designed for and in peaceful purposes only. When new States join space activities, the necessary political, organizational and legal framework for this cooperation needs to be set up.

As an indicative example that we think would be of some interest to this Committee, we would like to note the emerging practice of signing agreements on the protection of rocket and space technologies which has to do with controlled or protected commodities and goods, exported within the framework of programmes and projects, referring to the physical and legal protection of such protected commodities and items.

Many colleagues know how many difficulties have arisen ever since the 1980s in the discussion of the matter of immunity with regard to certain types of assets that are not covered by the norms and principles of diplomatic law. All the more interesting and satisfactory is the new experience that we have acquired just recently. We are truly satisfied with the fact that, for example, our Italian partners, in working within the framework of the agreement we signed with that country on outer space activities, opted to adopt the Russian proposal that, on a bilateral basis, we would extend to the assets of both governments, their space agencies and other designated organizations, an immunity against seizures, freezing or persecution executive actions in the territory of the importing States.

In the context of concluding our negotiations with Australia on a major agreement on the protection of Russian technologies within the framework of the Aurora project, also for the first time in the practice of international commercial scientific and technological cooperation, we reached a principled understanding as to the effect of the immunity principle with regard to a designated group of commodities on Australia’s Christmas Island and its territory.

Matters pertaining to the physical and legal protection of commodities which are subject to cooperation projects, have been included also in the new agreement signed by Russia and the European Space Agency, as well as the agreement being prepared by Russia and the Republic of Korea, to be signed shortly.

Mr. Chairman, it is not by chance that we have undertaken this historical review of the practice of signing agreements. As is well known, earlier, within the framework of this agenda item, we have made the suggestion that the Committee should develop a special questionnaire to find out the States views as to how best to systematize and organize the activities in this area, to define the range of subjects to be analyzed, a list of priority objectives, methods and deadlines and the forecast results on specific thematic units. Such a questionnaire, such a poll, could help define themes

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which could then be organized in the form of a special report by the Committee. And, if we are to be even more ambitious, and if we think of the long-term, it could serve to codify the norms and principles within the framework of the suggested universal comprehensive convention on outer space law.

Mr. Chairman, through you, we would like to assure our colleagues that, in making this suggestion, we are in no way trying to pursue any objectives that would be inconsistent with reality that would make our future discussions unnecessarily dramatic, if I can use that expression, dramatic impulses. We are convinced that it would be counter-productive to try and formulate ideas or suggestions that would go beyond the limits of reason and restraint while preparing such a questionnaire. Let us, distinguished colleagues, set high demands, high requirements, demand adequacy and significance in everything we do, demand firm links to reality, highlighting and focusing on constructive conclusions and motivations. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): I thank the distinguished delegate of the Russian Federation for his statement.

I have no more speakers on my list on this item of the agenda.

Implementation of the recommendations of the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III) (agenda item 7)

We will thus continue with our examination of item 7 of the agenda. I should add that, according to the Secretariat, we may now consider item 6 as concluded.

As I was saying, we will now continue with item 7, Implementation of the Recommendations of UNISPACE III.

The first speaker on my list is the distinguished representative of the United States, to whom I now give the floor.

Mr. K. HODGKINS (United States of America): Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am taking the floor in my capacity as Co-Chair of the Action Team Number 10 concerning global navigation satellite systems and I wish to provide the Committee with an update on the work of this Action Team. You will find a more complete description in document A/AC.105/L.247, Pages 16, 17 and 18.

Mr. Chairman, the Action Team on Global Navigation Satellite Systems has made considerable progress. We just recently held our seventh meeting on 10 June here in Vienna and I would like to touch upon some of the more significant findings and recommendations that the Action Team has been able to identify at this stage. We fully intend to have a report for consideration by the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee at its next session in 2004.

The Action Team is charged with surveying current efforts to achieve a seamless satellite-based radio and navigation positioning system to assess current models of international cooperation and identify those with potential applicability to evolve in GNSS and GNSS services and the proposed specific recommendations for entities of the United Nations, its Member States or other international organizations on actions to promote GNSS user interests.

The Action Team at this stage has made three, what I would consider to be fairly significant findings. The first, the GNSS and their augmentations are generally recognized as being useful for a wide range of civil and commercial applications. The coordination mechanism involving operators of GNSS and their augmentations, as well as other appropriate international organizations, could easily be established.

It appears that the general public and governmental and non-governmental experts understand the basic utility of GNSS services. While current and future GNSS operators are in a competitive mode, it is fully expected that collaboration will increase in order to serve the user community better. Outreach efforts must move beyond simple awareness among the general public and experts to provide assistance in the integration of GNSS into the basic infrastructure of countries, in particular in the developing world.

GNSS signals, security and integrity are one of the top priorities for the global user community, regardless of application. There is an urgent need for assistance to national and regional authorities, in particular in developing countries, to establish mechanisms for identifying and eliminating sources of interference that could degrade signals from GNSS.

Based on these findings, Mr. Chairman, the Action Team is working on the following recommendations. The first GNSS and augmentation provided should establish a GNSS Coordination Board that would include appropriate international organizations for the purpose of optimizing

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compatibility, identifying mechanisms for implementing measures to protect the integrity of signals, coordinating modernization activities to meet user needs, developing road maps and preparing technical reports for the introduction of GNSS services, particularly in developing countries, organizing regional workshops and providing training opportunities in GNSS.

The Action Team has further recommended that the Office for Outer Space Affairs, through the United Nations Programme on Space Applications, should continue to hold regional workshops for promoting the use of GNSS. The Regional Centres for Space Science and Technology Education affiliated with the United Nations should consider including GNSS in their training activities.

Mr. Chairman, the next step in the work of the Action Team will be the convening in December of this year, here in Vienna, of a meeting of the Action Team, along with selected experts who attended the series of four regional workshops that were co-sponsored by the United States, ESA and the United Nations, held in Austria, Chile, Malaysia and Zambia, and an experts meeting held last year here in Vienna. The purpose of this meeting in December will be to consider the recommendations and the implementation of those recommendations coming from the Action Team’s report, as well as to consider the Terms of Reference of a potential GNSS Coordination Board.

We consider, Mr. Chairman, this to be a significant step forward in forming what could be a very useful action plan for the United Nations and its Member States in enhancing the global use of GNSS and introducing GNSS to the basic infrastructures of countries, particularly in the developing world.

And finally, Mr. Chairman, the report contained in document L.247 does touch on some of the accomplishments of the Action Team to date but we have one very specific instance that I would like to share with the Committee where the United Nations, ESA and the United States GNSS regional workshops have resulted in concrete action. Often overlooked or misunderstood is the critical role of the reference frame, that is, the precise grid upon which all mapping, geographic information, regional planning, transport, is based, particularly in regions where this fundamental information is non-existence or too outdated to be useful. To promote the use of GNSS, the importance of having national governments and organizations understand and embrace the GNSS and emerging technology is key and to have a reliable reference frame is crucial to the application of GNSS.

At the GNSS Regional Workshop for Africa, held in Lusaka, Zambia, in July of 2002, a number of experts, particularly in the area of surveying, mapping, spatial data infrastructure and geographic information systems, from throughout Africa, attended this event and the representatives were familiar with the needs of their respective nations and the region. And during the Workshop, the concept of an African Reference Frame, AFREF, a continental reference frame spanning the 50 plus nations of Africa, crystallized and participants agreed that further action should be taken in order to create a reliable reference frame specific to Africa.

In December 2002, following the Vienna Experts Meeting on GNSS, an African-led meeting was held in Namibia to address the concrete realization of an African Reference Frame. Heads or representatives of a number of national mapping agencies were present and the Windhoek Declaration was developed. This Declaration lays out a plan for developing the African Reference Frame which will be crucial to the use of GNSS services in the African continent.

So, Mr. Chairman, I think that this is a very good example of concrete results from the United Nations workshops on GNSS. I thought we would share this with the Committee to show that, in fact, a small effort on the part of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs could have a major impact on the use of space technology, and in this case, in Africa. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): I thank the distinguished representative of the United States for his statement.

And the next speaker on my list is the distinguished representative of Austria.

Mr. W. LICHEM (Austria): Thank you Mr. Chairman. In our contribution to the general exchange of views under agenda item 5, I made reference to the proclamation of the year 2003 as the International Year of Freshwater. Austria is of the opinion that this Committee, and through its space science and technology, have to make a most relevant contribution to the efforts of coping with the new challenges the world is increasingly facing with regard to water resources development and use. As has been mentioned recently by the United Nations Secretary-General, water issues may even contain the seeds of violent conflict. Addressing these issues is thus responding to the need of providing both freedom from want and freedom from fear.

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If I look at the current global situation and put it into a broader context, we find that about 5,000 times more people die each year from water-related diseases than from terrorism. An estimated 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, 2.5 billion have no access to proper sanitation.

While in industrialized countries, a planning target of about 1,000 tons per capita per annum is a standard assumption. water-short countries now have to reduce their framework data from 800 to 600 and even less to 400 tons per person per annum for all types of uses, including agriculture use, industrial use, urban use and so on. The cost for responding to these very concrete challenges to human security has been estimated at about US$50-70 billion.

Mr. Chairman, water resources management is just one of those examples where we are faced with challenges on a multiple front. Growing attention there has to be given to the importance of the institutional dimension of water resources development and management. The challenge consists in the fact that water is inherently to be shared. It has to be shared among different uses, human consumption, urban water needs, industry, agriculture, health, navigation, recreation, fisheries, etc., and also between different jurisdictions, both territorial jurisdictions and functional jurisdictions. Consider the competition between the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Agriculture, city administration versus agricultural settlements. And there is also the competition among territorial jurisdictions.

And, at the same time, we have a growing awareness that only integrated water resources, development and management, that means integration of surface and groundwater resources, basin-wide integration of surface water, harbours the potential for optimizing sustainable use of water systems.

The jurisdictional dilemma tends to be most complicated and this even more so when the rights for the development and use of water are shared among sovereign nations.

More than three-quarters of the Member States of the United Nations, to be precise 145 countries, share water in international water resources. There are 261 international river basins, 71 in Europe, 60 in Africa, 53 in Asia, 39 in North and Central America and 38 in South America, and they cover an area of 45 million square kilometres of the Earth’s surface. However, and this is my point, cooperation in the development and use of these shared resource systems has developed only reluctantly. International

treaties relate to only one-fourth of the international river basins and only 25 international river basins out of 261, have now institutional arrangements for joint management and development.

Mr. Chairman, the reason for this hesitation in developing more effective structures of cooperation very often lie at the very basis of every management effort. There are no mutually recognized data. There are limits and gaps in information than in the exchange of information.

As the General Assembly’s Committee responsible for promoting the peaceful uses of space research and technology, we may wish to consider the contribution that space-based data collection and shared processing and analysis could make to substantially improving inter-jurisdictional water resources management.

“Space and Water” may be just another example of the new type of agenda we have where the word “and” is the key, “Environment and Development”, “Health and Human Security”, “Space and Water”. And it may be a response, it may harbour the proper responses to better respond, to better address the issues that we are facing in the field of water. It is no coincidence that water has taken central stage in international cooperation. Just to mention the follow-up of the World Summit for Sustainable Development, also programmes like the Global Environmental Facility and other international programmes of cooperation and development have increasingly focused on water resources.

In this context, I take pleasure in referring to the European Space Agency’s TIGER project of “Earth Observation for Integrated Water Resources Management in Africa” which is linked to the follow-up to Johannesburg and in particular also to the NEPAD process.

A number of national space agencies have set up space-based programmes related to hydrological data collection and the potential available is truly impressive.

Now, Mr. Chairman, many of today’s management challenges have to do with interfacing. How do we organize this link “and”, “Space and Water”? What Austria would like to propose here is consideration of a possible interface event between managers of inter-jurisdictional water resources systems, representatives of space agencies and of representatives of funding agencies in order to jointly explore as to whether, how and where space-based data

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can facilitate and support cooperation among countries in the development of shared use of their resources.

Austria is concretely considering dedicating next year’s Graz Symposium to this very purpose. International, regional and national institutions interested in such an initiative will be cordially invited to join in a planning group which would assume the responsibility, jointly, of course, with the Office for Outer Space Affairs of the United Nations, for the preparation of such an initial event which we would hope would lead to a process of managing that “and” between space and water. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): Thank you to the distinguished Ambassador Lichem of Austria for his contribution.

Before giving the floor to the next speaker on my list, and in the spirit of creating a spirit of reflection and a kind of reflection amongst us, I think it would be good that we already begin developing ideas with regard to the need, and here I am expressing my view that we need this, the need for developing the link of space and water issues as a possible agenda item for the future. I think it is something that we might want to think about. I recall a conference on water in 1977, I think it was. It was held in Argentina, 1972, says one of the delegates. I am not that old. In any case, it was some years ago, I had not been born yet and it was actually the grandfather of Ambassador Lichem who had participated in that. But in any event, I think it is important that we think about this issue of water and space. It has been around for years, and even in the 1970s, it was realized and acknowledged that it was a serious issue and it has just been exacerbated over the years and I think it is one we should think about. And I think that all delegations that feel motivated to propose new subjects to discuss, please feel free to do because I think that is what we need to do and we need to generate this spirit of vitality, dynamism and a spirit of reflection.

I would again like to thank Ambassador Lichem for his statement and I now have the honour of giving the floor to the distinguished representative of India.

Mr. V. SUNDARARAMAIAH (India): Thank you Mr. Chairman. The Indian delegation notes the significant contributions made by COPUOS in its last session and the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee in its fortieth session towards progressing the implementation of UNISPACE III recommendations. We appreciate the contributions of the Working Group of the Whole of the Scientific and

Technical Subcommittee under the chairmanship of Mr. Nasim Shah of Pakistan. The Action Teams, formed earlier on the 11 recommendations are meant to involve various member States in the discussions relating to the implementation of the UNISPACE III recommendations. But we note that the participation of and feedback from many member States in the discussions of Action Teams is not very encouraging. The level of interest and participation has to increase so that the future implementation of the pilot projects will be practical.

Mr. Chairman, with the Action Teams completing their initial reports on their first phase of activity, we will be fast approaching the question of how to implement the projects. Enthusing the interested member States, international intergovernmental organizations and other interested non-governmental entities into implementing the pilot projects detailed by the Action Teams, will be a challenging task before all of us in the coming sessions. We are sure that our combined political will to see through real success of UNISPACE III will overcome all the challenges and find practical and reasonable solutions. We should also start addressing the task of finding the appropriate funding forums for these activities.

The Indian delegation continues to hold the view that the responsibilities to implement UNISPACE III recommendations belong to the member States, to the Office for Outer Space Affairs under the guidance of the Committee and Subcommittees, and to the intergovernmental organizations for multilateral cooperation at regional and global level. We should also be prepared for the implementation of the pilot projects detailed by the Action Teams in a step-by-step manner, if necessary.

Mr. Chairman, India, as Chairman of the Action Team on Recommendation 2, “Improve the Management of Earth’s Natural Resources”, has submitted the initial report and also the template decided by the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee. The Action Team expects to bring out a compendium on success stories which should provide necessary impetus to replicate them as pilot/demonstration projects in other developing countries appropriately. We once again appeal to all countries and organizations which are members of the Action Team to actively contribute to the task of the Action Team by way of providing feedback and with suggestions on the projects and their implementation.

Mr. Chairman, the Indian delegation considers that COPUOS has the primary responsibility to

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facilitate the implementation of the UNISPACE III recommendations. The review mechanism by COPUOS and the selection of the immediate actions within the financial and organizational constraints should protect the balance of interests reflected in the Vienna Declaration.

Mr. Chairman, we extend our full support to the effective implementation of the recommendations of UNISPACE III and to the role of COPUOS to achieve that noble target. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): Thank you to the distinguished representative of India.

Once again, I am going to allow myself a very brief comment. After the statements of the United States and India, I think that we need to be extraordinarily clear in our own minds that the core of the mandate that we received from UNISPACE III is the Action Teams. And so there is a call here to all delegations that, if they wish so, to please refer to this subject and that I really think that we should have a very active participation and discussion on this matter because we really need to adapt these recommendations to developing nations needs.

And having said that, I now give the floor to Japan. You have the floor Sir.

Mr. T. KURASAKI (Japan): Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, Japan is involved in UNISPACE III action items that were adopted in 1999 and has served as the Chair of the Action Team for item number 17, “To Enhance Capacity-Building Through the Development of Human and Budgetary Resources, the Training and Professional Development of Teachers, the Exchange of Teaching Methods, Materials and Experience and the Development of Infrastructure and Policy Regulations”.

With the cooperation of member countries and organizations, we have carried out activities for the education and training of those who will be in charge of future space development and utilization and space science. In addition, to most effectively attain the goals of the Action Team and to harmonize with other UNISPACE III action items, Japan has also been participating in Action Teams concerned with environmental monitoring, item 1, the Earth’s natural resources, item 2, weather and climate forecasting, item 4, management of natural disaster mitigation, item 7, the global navigation satellite system, item 10, and near-Earth objects, item 14. Through its involvement

in these action items, Japan hopes to contribute to the aims of the Vienna Declaration.

Mr. Chairman, I would now like to report on the status of activities for the Action Team for item number 17.

The following countries are members: Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Hungary, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United States and Japan.

In addition to these 25 countries, seven organizations participate in this Action Team, namely United Nations/ESCAP (Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific), UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), ESA (European Space Agency), COSPAR (Committee on Space Research), the IAU (International Astronomical Union), the Manila Observatory and the SGAC (Space Generation Advisory Council).

Our Action Team has been focusing on the following two tasks. The first one is sharing information on existing fellowships for scientists, engineers and technicians and enhancing education and training opportunities for them. The second one is exchanging information, materials, know-how and experiences on teaching youth.

In order to achieve these objectives, our Action Team has been considering how to improve the sharing of information on education and training. Coordinating and convening meetings and forums, such as the one on capacity-building held last October in Houston, USA, has made it possible to efficiently exchange information on these topics.

We would also like to mention that Japanese representatives participated in the IAA/IAF/UNESCO/ISU Expert Workshop “Bridging Space and Education”, held in Paris this March, and in the CEOS Working Group on Education, WGEdu, chaired by Dr. Sergio Camacho, held in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, this May, in order to share information in these fields.

Moreover, we are very pleased to announce that Mr. Philippe Willekens of ESA will give a presentation later today on the Expert Workshop that was held in Paris.

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Our Action Team will discuss recommendations for future capacity-building activities this afternoon and reflect the results of our discussions in our Action Team’s final report.

Mr. Chairman, lastly, Japan and the other members of our Action Team for item number 17 will contribute to promotion of the peaceful uses of outer space by enhancing international cooperation on capacity-building. Thank you very much for your attention.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): Thank you very much the distinguished representative of Japan.

I now give the floor to the distinguished delegate of France.

Ms. S. CALLARI (France) (interpretation from French): Mr. Chairman, the year 2004, as the General Assembly desired, a year for taking stock of the work accomplished since UNISPACE III in 1999, will allow us to see the progress achieved by those groups that were set up in order to respond to the recommendations of the UNISPACE III Conference, in particular with regard to those judged priorities.

France is very committed particularly to Group number 7 for the establishment of an integrated global national disaster system. This subject, indeed, is a constant in our concerns. The meeting held before this session is indicative of the significant progress achieved by this team, co-chaired, I recalled, by China, Canada and France. We have provided a first report for Group 32 which we are heading on the idea of researching new sources of financing.

We are convinced that the work that will be accomplished by most of the groups in the context of UNISPACE III recommendations will contribute to demonstrating that space technologies can help to meet the challenges of the planet which include environmental protection but also socio and economic development, particularly in the areas of health and education. These technologies can truly help to concretely contribute to better access to health and information.

We are convinced that the satellite is something that makes it possible to contribute real value-added, either in an autonomous manner or through Earth infrastructures as a complement and thus CNES has undertaken voluntary studies of validation and demonstrations of new services for satellites, particularly in the areas of medicine and training.

Education and distance training were the first projects that were launched, at a national level, a few years ago. Technologies of the Internet have greatly accelerated in all areas, the area of education and particularly distance training. It is thus now possible to follow courses over the Internet and to register with a large university in order to obtain a diploma.

A number of pilot projects today and several telecom satellites at the heart of these architectures have been established to these ends and thus it was possible to launch amongst the application programmes CNES was able to develop or have developed procedures which are innovative and relevant. Generic applications have been developed and there has been an implementation of the digital communications platform, with the CNES satellite, which was then tested at a larger scale in nature with different partners.

Amongst the various distance training projects that we have responsibility for, we could indicate the following. The Francophone Virtual Medical University, including 40 French universities, and industrial players with a view to offering services for medical or paramedical training for professionals and the larger public. By way of example, a number of demonstrations, which were all conclusive, were held via satellite and this particularly covers the area of training, leading to a diploma in obstetric gynaecology which was provided to more than 70 Tunisian specialists.

The ImageSat project, in cooperation with the GDTA branch, which is the Development Group for Aerospace Remote Sensing, has made it possible to hold the first demonstration, by satellite, of certified training on techniques for interpretation of satellite images. This was delivered to 12 Egyptian trainers. This pilot project will soon lead to training of multi-sites in North Africa and South America and a number of other projects similarly are under way with French industrial and institutional partners.

The project ETUDE study, conducted by the French Committee, near UNESCO, and in partnership with the University of Paul Sabatier, Toulouse III, and supported by the Earth and Space Technology Research Network, was launched by the Ministry of Research and New Technologies, and one of its major initiatives is destined to exploiting communication satellites’ capacity for Francophone universities, particularly in Africa and South America. The goal is to train users and the processing of remote satellite sensing images and in the techniques of territory surveillance.

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The CNES is also participating in a Franco-Indian digital campus pilot project which is, for the French part, run by the European Pôle University of Toulouse. This university, which is a virtual university called the French-Indian Cyber University in Sciences, should be opened soon to most French students and Indian students at all levels of university, in all disciplinary subjects. It is built around a very first project, digital campus, e-m@ths, bringing together several universities of France and India. A first cyber workshop was held from 3 to 7 February including 80 students in each country.

Other projects are under way including experimentation for world space technology which has been improved under contract with the CNES in order to allow for stream dissemination of videos on computers or digital personal assistants, providing literacy classes for isolated populations.

Mr. Chairman, I have now presented in just a few words our distance education satellite programmes and these projects show that, from our point of view, this is an area which is of extreme importance for our Committee. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): Thank you to the distinguished delegate of France for her statement.

I will now give the floor to the distinguished delegate of Germany.

Mr. K.-U. MUELLER (Germany): Thank you Mr. Chairman. The German delegation very much appreciates the progress of the activities of all members and their delegations in the various Action Teams and I am happy to note that Germany could take an active part in some of them.

Please allow me to give the following remarks.

First, on Action Team 7. I would like to explain Germany’s contributions to disaster management and humanitarian aid with space techniques. First of all, I would like to inform delegations about the second Early Warning Conference which will be arranged by the UN-ISDR with the support of the German Foreign Office in Bonn, Germany, from 16 through 18 October 2003.

Given the tradition of earlier gatherings, in particular the Early Warning Conference I, EWC-I, in Potsdam, Germany, in 1998, it becomes obvious that

disaster management and humanitarian aid are of high priority in Germany.

We are actively participating in national and international user organizations like DKKV, German Committee for Disaster Prevention, in order to orientate our space developments and products of coming missions, such as TerrSAR and RapidEye, towards practical needs. We are also linking the German DLR Remote Sensing Data Centre with national and international networks. A special network for civil security is currently being built under the title of deNIS, German Disaster Information Network, by the Federal Ministry of the Interior.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to make some remarks on Action Team 10.

The German delegation very much appreciates the progress of the activities of all 11 members and their delegations in the Working Groups as well as in the Steering Group.

In Germany, all nationally funded activities in the field of space debris research are concentrated in one coherent project entitled “Space Debris End-to-End Service”. The project has now been running for more than one year. It was described in detail in the last report on national research on space debris, see document A/AC.105/751/Add.2.

Other activities of German research institutes or companies are executed under contracts with the European Space Agency.

As far as the Action Team 32 is concerned, the Action Team 32 handed over its report some weeks ago. This report is now submitted to the Committee as document A/AC.105/L.246.

The report mainly deals with the following issues.

First, the role of various actors and bodies such as space agencies, governments, development banks, specialized agencies, industry and applicants for funding.

And second, the Action Team proposals.

Some proposals could lead to an additional workload for the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee or the Action Team itself. Now the purpose should be not to prepare a new report, but implementation of relevant proposals.

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Finally, Germany would like to thank once again all the members of the Action Teams for their contributions. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): Thank you very much to Germany for their statement.

And I am giving the floor to the representative of China.

Mr. C. LI (China) (interpretation from Chinese): Mr. Chairman, of the 11 Action Teams established by the Committee, China took part in the work of the Action Team Number 7, co-chaired by China, Canada and France. The Bureau of the Action Team held consultations with all member States over the year through questionnaires, e-mail and other types of communications, to establish a true exchange of views regarding the management of natural disasters and the use of space technologies for that purpose.

We have worked together with international organizations and have set up a list of recommendations based on these exchanges. Owing to the effective support from the Office for Outer Space Affairs and the joint and constructive efforts undertaken by all member States of our Action Teams, we have been able to compile an analytical report reviewing the capacity of countries and their space resources in the area of managing and mitigating natural disasters such as droughts, earthquakes, forest fires, ecological catastrophes, oil spills and so forth. We have established the principle elements that have the most influence on the application of space technologies for the management and mitigation of such natural disasters. These elements are technology, operation, funding, education and training. Consequently, we have, I believe, accomplished the mandate entrusted in our Action Team and we will present our report to the Office for Outer Space Affairs. We hope this report is going to be concise, dynamic and effective and will be integrated in the work of the Committee in this area.

Mr. Chairman, as a member of the Bureau of this Action Team Number 7, I would like to take advantage of this opportunity and express our heartfelt gratitude to all member States, international organizations and individuals who have made important contributions to the work of Action Team Number 7. I would like to thank specifically and particularly the Office for Outer Space Affairs and its leadership.

Mr. Chairman, to bring to a minimum the negative impact of natural disasters on the life of populations, on economic progress and development and to most effectively follow-up on the recommendations of UNISPACE III in this area and to help implement the recommendations for the management of natural disasters using space-based technology, we have approved, in China, the construction of mini-satellites specifically designed to monitor environment and predict and manage natural disasters. The funding for this project has already been approved. The project is now in its final stages of the research stage. There will be four optical mini-satellites and four satellite-based radars. They refer to this project as Four Plus Four. There will be several phases that the project will go through after the research is over. First, we will put in place synthetic aperture radars and a similar type of satellite, that will be in 2006. These satellites will be equipped with infrared scanners and the synthetic aperture radar will be equipped with the latest technology that will make it possible to effectively monitor the environment.

This project has become possible owing to effective international cooperation and it will become an integral part of the international system of environmental monitoring and natural disaster prediction. It will transmit data within two hours after any observed environmental changes that could potentially predict natural disasters to any site on the face of the Earth.

Mr. Chairman, China will continue work to implement the recommendations of UNISPACE III and is committed to actively participating in the continued work of our Action Team with a view to bringing to a head its recommendations. Thank you very much Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): Thank you to the distinguished representative of China.

I would now like to call on the next speaker on my list and this is the distinguished representative of Nigeria. You have got the floor.

Mr. A. A. ABIODUN (Nigeria): Thank you very much Mr. Chairman for giving me the opportunity to address the distinguished delegates on agenda item number 7. As we are all aware, Nigeria is chairing the Action Team 11 on recommendations of UNISPACE III, and as all of us would recollect at its fortieth session this February, the Action Team itself submitted its final report, A/AC.105/C.1/L.264, along with an illustrative presentation to all of us in this room. And

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as we are all aware, also at the fortieth session, the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee concluded its meeting by establishing a Working Group to prepare a report of the Committee on implementation of UNISPACE III recommendations for submission to the fifty-ninth session of the General Assembly in 2004.

On this occasion, I wish to call the attention of all delegates to the submission of Action Team 11 on Sustainable Development and this particular submission, in response to the work of the Working Group, can be found as Annex VII on Pages 19 to 21 of document A/AC.105/L.247.

Now we are moving on towards 2004 and our report is now a public record. So, on this occasion, I am requesting all delegates, beyond the list we have of interested member States in this particular Action Team report to please study our template which, I said before, is Annex VII, A/AC.105/L.247. And what we are appealing to you for is to study what we have in this particular template, specifically we want you to look at recommendations. I want you to study them, see how practical, realistic and achievable they are. I want you to make suggestions as to how they can be enhanced or improved. And any recommendation you might make to us, we appeal to you that those recommendations you have ownership. In other words, any recommendations should not be left hanging but should be assigned to somebody or an institution for purposes of implementation.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, on behalf of Action Team 11, therefore, we invite such input to come to us between now and June next year and this can come to us either directly to myself or, better still, to the Office for Outer Space Affairs and they will get the recommendations to me. But specifically, I am aware that a number of symposia, conferences, seminars and workshops are scheduled between now and June next year and these activities will address sustainable development. We appeal to you to study the template as you are making your conclusions at these activities and try as much as possible to use your conclusions at these meetings to enhance what we have in our template. Thank you very much Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): Thank you to the distinguished representative of Nigeria for his statement.

And now I will take a moment for a brief announcement that the distinguished delegate of Canada would like to make.

Ms. M. LAROCQUE (Canada): Thank you Mr. Chairman. I simply wish to draw member States attention to a one-pager that was circulated to all members of COPUOS regarding an announcement or invitation to attend a meeting of Action Team 6 on Public Health, to take place today in Room C0713 from 12.00 to 1.00 p.m. I also note that there is unfortunately an error in the list of current participating countries to the Action Team. Therefore, I would refer delegations to document A/AC.105/L.247 in which the full membership list is included. Thank you very much.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): Thank you to the distinguished representative of Canada for her clarification.

With that, we have now concluded the official list of speakers for this morning on item 7. Is that a point of order? The distinguished representative of the United States.

Mr. K. HODGKINS (United States of America): Thank you Mr. Chairman. I apologize for taking the floor once again under this agenda item. I failed to mention during my earlier intervention that the special presentation that you will be hearing this morning by Ruth Neilan of the International GPS Service is part of the …

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): Microphone for the Chair please. I apologize for interrupting the representative of the United States but in respect of all delegates, if people could please turn of their cell phones, especially with disco music. I mean, truly, I am serious. We all have the right to express ourselves without being interrupted. I know that some love disco music or other kinds of music but this is not a music room, a ballroom, so I would cordially invite you to go attend a concert but I apologize to the United States and could you please continue.

Mr. K. HODGKINS (United States of America): Thank you Mr. Chairman. It is quite all right. I had failed to mention that the special presentation you will be hearing this morning is directly related to the work of the Action Team on GNSS. Mrs. Ruth Neilan, who is a member of the Action Team, representing the International GPS Service. She will be giving a presentation this morning at the end of our session on the International GPS Service. What this Organization does, what it hopes to accomplish and how member States or organizations within member States, might be able to participate

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directly in the work of the IGS. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): Thank you. I would ask the distinguished representative of the United States if he is referring to the presentation that will be done by Mrs. Ruth Neilan, because, indeed, that was announced at the beginning of this meeting. So delegations will have an opportunity to hear her presentation as well as others that will be coming to give us presentations.

Now I will give the floor to the observer who requested the floor to make a statement. I would like to welcome Mr. Den Stone who is Chair of the Space Week Association that we will have the pleasure listening to.

Mr. D. STONE (Spaceweek International Association): Thank you very much Mr. Chairman. Thank you Mr. Chairman for your capable leadership of the COPUOS and for your support as a dedicated member of the Spaceweek International Association Board of Directors. Indeed, I wish to thank all members of the Association Board for their faithful service. I offer my special appreciation to the most experienced and wise Chairman of our Board, the distinguished delegate from Nigeria, Dr. Ade Abiodun. It is a privilege to work with all of you in the great cause of promoting the peaceful uses of space.

This is the first time for Spaceweek International Association to address the Committee as an observer. On behalf of the Association, I wish to thank the Committee and all its fine members and delegates for this great honour. I am pleased that, as an NGO, the Association has such an effective working relationship with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs under the brilliant leadership of Dr. Sergio Camacho.

I wish to refer all distinguished delegates to the document before you entitled “Report on World Space Week 2002”, document ST/Space/19. This report, most beautifully printed by OOSA, describes the results of World Space Week, last 4 to 10 October. I hope that each of you can take a moment to look through the report and take satisfaction in the growth and success of World Space Week.

I am particularly pleased that the number of States participating in World Space Week 2002 increased to 40 States. As detailed in the report, organizations across the government and non-government sectors held a rich variety of public outreach and education programmes. I wish to thank

these many participants and especially those who provided a report on their World Space Week activities.

As you all know, World Space Week is the time each year when the global space community reaches out to society at large, educating the general public and government leaders about the many applications of space to life on Earth and using space to excite children about math and science.

In this context, it is satisfying to note not only the growth of World Space Week, but the increasing cooperation shown by organizations around the world on this annual event. Indeed, for World Space Week to truly implement the goals set out for it at UNISPACE III and officially declared by the United Nations General Assembly, continued cooperation and continued growth will be very important.

Such growth, we believe, is achievable because it is easy to participate in World Space Week. Organizations that have planned public outreach or education programmes for 4 to 10 October timeframe can simply promote those events as part of World Space Week. Organizations can also consider re-scheduling programmes to that week. These steps can be done without any additional resources. Of course, organizations can also consider creating new events especially for World Space Week.

The more events that are publicized as part of this Week, the greater attention each event will receive. Through this wonderful synergy, with continued growth, it is our vision that World Space Week will eventually reach every member of humanity with the exciting message of the benefits of space.

As we move closer to achieving this vision, we seek ways to encourage participation in World Space Week and to attract media coverage. I wish to share several ideas in this regard and would appreciate the feedback and guidance of the Committee. As you can see in the report, many locations, for example, launch small model rockets during World Space Week to excite children about space. One idea is to ask participants to launch such rockets at the exact moment of the launch of Sputnik-1 on 4 October next year. This could then be a truly global event that could launch World Space Week and attract worldwide media coverage. Another idea is to use a celebrity who appeals to youth, to encourage student interest in math and science during World Space Week.

Mr. Chairman, we would welcome reactions to these ideas and we would also warmly welcome

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additional ideas to make World Space Week more successful and meaningful.

Now on a practical matter. Mr. Chairman, as you well know, the Association provides many services to World Space Week participants globally. These include the annual World Space Week poster, teacher materials, the World Space Week website, media materials and the compilation of the report now before you. We are a volunteer organization but we do incur costs in providing these services. For this reason, our Board last year established a programme to allow organizations to affiliate with the Association, receiving valuable benefits while helping to sponsor World Space Week services at the global level. I am pleased today to recognize nine organizations that have contributed thus far. These distinguished organizations are the European Space Agency, Lockheed Martin, the Sasakawa International Centre for Space Architecture, Space Education Initiatives, the Franklin Institute Science Museum, Kistler Aerospace, Sener, Hernandez Engineering and SUPARCO.

The Association deeply thanks these organizations for their generous support and we thank all organizations which have considered and might consider providing such support in the future.

Humbled by the increasing participation in World Space Week, we invite all States and organizations to continue this positive trend through your own participation each year. We stand ready to serve any State and any organization in this regard.

Mr. Chairman, I wish to thank the Committee for the opportunity to share these remarks today and wish to thank all delegates for their great support for World Space Week. Thank you very much.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): Thank you to the distinguished representative of Spaceweek Association for his presentation.

And with that, we have concluded item 7 of the agenda. Correct? And we will continue examination of this this afternoon.

Report of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee on its fortieth session (agenda item 8)

We will now begin item 8, Report of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee on its Fortieth Session.

To begin, I have the pleasure of giving the floor to the distinguished Chair of this Subcommittee, Dr. Karl Doetsch. You have the floor Sir.

Mr. K. DOETSCH (Canada): Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates, I am pleased to report that the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space concluded a successful meeting at its fortieth session in February of this year. The detailed report of the meeting is provided in A/AC.105/804. The success of the meeting was, in no small measure, due to the excellent support of all of the team of the Office for Outer Space Affairs in its careful preparations for, and efficient administration during, the meeting. The thanks of the Subcommittee go to all of this team. I should like to express the particular appreciation of the Subcommittee for the outstanding leadership and work undertaken by the new Director of this Office, Dr. Sergio Camacho, at a time when the Office needed to operate with reduced staff levels.

Mr. Chairman, I should like to take this opportunity to provide a brief assessment of the activities of this Subcommittee. The Subcommittee is tasked to provide for a general exchange of views, to advance the United Nations Programme on Space Applications, to implement the wide-ranging recommendations of the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, UNISPACE III, to address a number of standing agenda items that include Earth observation, communications, navigation systems, nuclear power sources in space, space debris and interagency cooperation, to address special items such as, in the fortieth session, the use of space assets for disaster management systems, for medical sciences and public health, to receive such briefings as are necessary to remain well informed about the major activities and issues in space, and to cooperate in the planning of special events, workshops and symposia. Good progress was made in each of these areas.

One activity that has grown markedly, gained significant attention and made much progress during the past three years, is the implementation of the recommendations of UNISPACE III, in preparation for the presentation of a progress report to the United Nations General Assembly in 2004. I am very satisfied with the success in establishing Action Teams to address not only each of the UNISPACE III recommendations considered by the delegates as having the highest priority, but also several others that were of particular interest to some delegations. Twelve out of 33 recommendations are being pursued actively by these multi-national teams, with leadership being

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provided from around the world. It is gratifying to see the close cooperation, networking and active work that has been stimulated amongst the delegates and others to meet the challenging goals of implementing the recommendations of UNISPACE III. I have every confidence that it will be possible to report significant progress to the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2004.

I am very pleased to report that the statement developed with the full and timely cooperation of delegates during the thirty-ninth session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, subsequently endorsed by the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, and presented to the World Summit on Sustainable Development, in Johannesburg in 2002, contributed to the unprecedented political recognition of the benefits of space to the achievement of a sustainable world, as is evidenced by the implementation report of the Summit. We look forward to achieving similar success in gaining recognition of the benefits of space activity at future world-scale conferences that tackle the profound issues facing society today and in future. Our participation in such events is an important means of addressing the recurring refrain heard throughout the space community that it is not effective as it might be in sharing the value of its activities with those who could benefit from them in fulfilling their own mandates. Clearly, the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, through its delegates, can play an increasingly important role of outreach towards government and interagency organizations on behalf of all of the space community. It is my belief that this outreach should be planned, coordinated and strengthened.

Mr. Chairman, I am satisfied that the working methods of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee are being continuously improved to enhance its efficiency and effectiveness. The ability to continue to do this depends to a large extent on receiving constructive feedback from delegates, on the careful preparation by delegates for the meeting and the willingness of delegates to participate in the collective activities that advance the application of space for the benefit of all. The delegates are meeting this challenge well and I thank them for this.

Mr. Chairman, allow me to conclude with the observation that the work of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee is substantial and timely. Our task is to continue to make space activity relevant and mainstream, not only within the space community, but also within society at large. It has been my privilege to serve as Chairman of this Subcommittee for the past three years and I thank the delegates for having

provided me with such a rewarding opportunity to help advance space activity to meet future needs of our world. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): Thank you for your very illustrative presentation. Thank you Dr. Doetsch. This is an illustrative presentation on a Subcommittee that is very important to the work of this Committee.

Now we will have an opportunity to listen to a report which I think is of great importance. One moment please. Let me apologize to the distinguished delegate of Pakistan. I had a misunderstanding of the notes here that I had been given. I now have the pleasure to give the floor to the distinguished representative of Pakistan.

Mr. R. HUSSAIN (Pakistan): Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman and distinguished delegates, my delegation is satisfied that the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee has made satisfactory progress during its fortieth session held in February 2003. Through the competent work performed by the United Nations Expert on Space Applications, supervised by the able guidance of the Director of the Office for Outer Space Affairs, we have seen opportunities for short-term training courses, participation in workshops and seminars expand manifolds. However, my delegation has been noting that with the passage of time, the opportunities for long-term fellowships for in-depth training in the fields of space science and space technology have been minimized during the past several years. A look at the proposed United Nations Space Applications Programme for the year 2003 reveals that two fellowship opportunities in remote sensing technology and three fellowships in satellite communications would be available at the ESA institutions, which is heartening to learn. However, for the year 2004, there seems to be no such opportunities to be made available to the developing countries. In view of the fact that many developing countries have benefited from this type of training, my delegation would like to stress the need to provide more and more such opportunities every year for in-depth training under the United Nations Applications Programme.

Mr. Chairman, I am sure you will appreciate that it is the human resource development which is going to play a very key role in advancing this technology in developing countries.

Mr. Chairman, regarding the use of nuclear power sources in outer space, the Working Group on this agenda item is doing commendable work under the

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able and competent guidance of Dr. Sam A. Harbison, in drawing up a multi-year work plan for developing an international technically-based framework of goals and recommendations for the safety of nuclear power sources in outer space. My delegation does hope that under this work plan, a multi-faceted and multi-dimensional approach would be adopted to review all the relevant aspects of the issues involved under this agenda item.

Mr. Chairman, with regard to the implementation of an Integrated Space-Based Global Natural Disaster Management System, there is some forward movement at the fortieth session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, wherein a review was made of the possible global operational structures to handle natural disaster management. The Disaster Management Support Group of CEOS is also doing valuable work in this regard. Pakistan’s national space agency, SUPARCO, is also operating since 1991, Pakistan Mission Control Centre, as well as Pakistan Local User Terminal for the International COSPAS-SARSAT Search and Rescue Programme, as a Ground Service Provider. The service are of this station covers several countries in the vicinity of Pakistan. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): Thank you to the distinguished representative of Pakistan for his statement.

We have now concluded this morning’s agenda and, therefore, we will move on to the various presentations.

Presentation on IAA/IAF/ISU/UNESCO Expert Workshop on Space and Education

The first presentation will be made by Mr. Philippe Willekens. It is on the Expert Workshop on Space and Education with the International Astronautical Federation, UNESCO and, as I said, it is a Workshop on Space and Education. I now give the floor to Mr. Philippe Willekens for his presentation.

Mr. P. WILLEKENS (European Space Agency): Thank you very much Mr. Chairman. Thank you distinguished delegates for this invitation to this Committee to report on this IAF and IAA study group on space and education.

It is my pleasure, and also I would like to thank Dr. Kurasaki from the Action Team 17 to invite me today also to work with this Action Team 17 on the issue of space and education.

I would like to mention that this group is actually a study group from the International Astronautical Federation and the International Academy of Astronautics, with the partnership of UNESCO and the International Space University. We have worked together for many years and several working group meetings have been held throughout the International Astronautical Congresses with more than 40 papers per year over the past 10 years on space and education and we felt it was a good moment to make a sort of synthesis of all this and that was the purpose of the meeting we had in March which I will report on.

I would like to get you at ease and put you back in this context that whenever we discuss and talk to students or teachers in trying to promote this enthusiasm for space, education is all about questioning and giving inspiration, questioning kids from all over the planet on issues that are related to the environment of the planet but also from the Universe, issues that are related to the daily life, all the things that happen in some countries like natural disasters, these are part of the education systems and messages and subjects that we would like to deliver. And it is very important to identify this that it is not only enthusiasm and joy and games, it is all about what space can bring to the daily life and, as far as the understanding of all this exciting, we say that space is in the indication as the first pillar of the bridge between space and education because space is an excellent illustration and a pedagogical tool for the students and the teachers themselves. And this is the way we brought down our approach where the first pillar is that, space towards the education system.

Then, of course, being part of the humankind heritage, we were very sensitive about capacity-building and work for development and this was the whole relevance of the Action Team 17 where, of course, after having reached all the youngsters and the students and the teachers to increase the literacy in science and technology, and in particular space science, we had to prepare for the next generation of space engineering, space scientists and all the actors of the space sectors in the future. And that was the second pillar of the space and education to respond to this decline and you have just a curve here that shows the example in the United States but this is worldwide in trends that the decline of interest of space, in science and technology is quite increasing.

Our second pillar is actually education in space and try to build a community of the future generation of space actors. So that was the second aspect of the study to prepare for this workforce.

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And, of course, as the distinguished delegation of France presented earlier this morning, space is a unique tool for providing education. We mentioned tele-science, tele-education and tele-medicine as key examples and this is considered as a third pillar of space and education subjects.

These were the subjects and several meetings had a certain focus on each of those subjects and, in particular, the IAF/IAA/ISU/UNESCO, sorry for the length, was focusing in particular on space in education and as the two last years of the secondary education is so much important for the youngsters before they decide what their future will be, we really focus on that age group.

We wanted to evaluate and see whatever recommendation was already formulated in the past to all the meetings which were organized around the planet on space and education. We tried to just list them and look at those recommendations and, of course, starting with the recommendation coming from the UNISPACE III Conference. Based on that, we looked at all the projects which were actually referring to or linked some way or another with the actions from these recommendations and we tried to have a sort of overall view of this.

The different projects were categorized according to these recommendations and the strategic objectives related and we discussed within several splinter groups what are the experiences from all these projects. The idea in the medium-term is to come up with an action plan to establish particular pilot projects, and I will come later to this notion of pilot projects. It is not just another project, it is a pilot project of a special kind which we consider that, based on existing projects, we would like to export or extend the existing projects that are pursued today in space and education and propose these projects for cooperation or inclusion, let us say, for developing countries, for instance. We would like to have a sort of an agreement from all the partners and the organizations and governments who are the sponsors of these space and education projects to have this open mind for sharing the information and sharing their projects with other countries.

We will also have a report at the International Astronautical Congress in Bremen and at the UNESCO General Conference next October.

And I will not go through all these details. We will discuss this with the Action Team this afternoon, the Action Team 17, but you can see that starting from UNISPACE III, these recommendations have been repeated in various different events and

venues around the world in different countries and all the same subjects were coming again and again. And it was good that space and education was brought at a certain level of interest but we tried to identify which were clearly the actions coming out of all these meetings.

We tried to work out within the studies on a sort of typology or categorization of all the recommendations with practical examples. We have heard earlier Spaceweek, we have heard several other projects earlier in the presentation from the Action Teams. We did not expect to have an exhaustive study but we wanted to see how much these different sorts of projects were actually represented around the world.

After this categorization which, of course, is in the handout we will distribute to you, we tried to link the project categories and review them to enhance, of course, with any additional category, but for each of those, we discussed with the initiators, the philosophy behind it, sharing the lessons learned, the positive and the negative experiences, and we prepared a summary report from that.

One thing I would like to stress was the importance of the repetitivity. It does not matter whether something is repeated, a project is done in one country and the same project is done in a different country, what is important is that at one point in time, they share the experience so that they can make progress. And a third country or many more countries can come and join those projects one way or another.

Key questions were raised around those projects and this is a little part of the evaluation of each of these projects. What is the relevance of the true education of those projects whether these projects are education or educational or outreach in communication was quite important. It was very important to make and distinguish at least a good understanding of the difference between the raising of awareness, the outreaching and the actual increase in literacy through the education system.

It was also important to identify who were the initiators and the sponsors to make it durable and not a single shot event which, in some cases, is very beneficial but what we are looking at in education is the long-term, is the sustainability of the project along the years.

How to assess the quality, how to assess the target response and the quantity, the number of people, the sheer number of teachers and students or young people that are reached through these projects? It is

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something that is not available across all the projects that have been initiated in the past years.

And, of course, to identify what was the education materials that are available throughout these projects was also a very important factor and in identifying also what kind of language this is available.

Of course, you understand that we have done this through questionnaires, with the gathering of several experts from all our committees and the end goal is to put this into a database so that this information would be widely available through an Internet system.

The pilot project that I mentioned earlier was not something that I was proposing as a new project, aside from the other one. The pilot project that we were trying to propose through this study group is something that would be more like an attitude. Each of the projects which has already a component of international cooperation, we would like to propose them for more international cooperation, in particular, for those who have been focused within some space-faring nations, for instance, would be shared with some developing countries so they can benefit directly from it.

We wanted to define each proposed pilot project with a certain number of criteria so we could follow how far they reach the initial objective. I will not go into all the details here from all the splinter sessions but I can give you just two examples of the recommendations review that we made. And one of them came out, which was quite interesting, even though we were talking about education and not outreaching, was the importance of the media in the education system, not only in the outreach system but the importance of the media in the education system. We really stressed that many times.

And the second point was that, after all, education is all about inspiration and understanding of a clear vision and that was expressed by the youngsters that have participated in all these projects that the major factor for their enthusiasm was to understand that clear vision that would base their inspiration on.

We reviewed some projects, and I will not go through all of them but some of them, like the Globe project in the United States initiated by NASA and several other organizations, spreading over all the different nations to participate in local measurements, intercultural exchange, just based on language exchange, using space as a good subject for discussion, Latin American initiatives and several other projects

that have been initiated by the Space Generation Advisory Council on a voluntary basis, like the “Under African Skies”. So we reviewed all these and we tried to make inter-connections, at least as a sort of criteria, or evaluation criteria, and a common basis of evaluation, in particular, looking at all the lessons learned, positive and negative, as I said earlier.

Among the lessons learned, I can just show you a few ones, like the difficulty that some countries expressed, to have the political reason and justification and the commitment from the high-ranking politicians to have these projects ongoing. We identified that in most of the cases, the projects were sustained by individuals, enthusiasm of individuals. And although governments are involved and support many of these actions, they were felt that the commitment to those education projects were not really at the expectation of those who were proposing it. So this was something that called for an improvement.

I can go on with some other ones like space in the curriculum which, in a way, was quite surprising. Youngsters were quite reluctant in some cases, and in particular in European States, to add on to the already saturated programme with a space subject just adding on to it. Rather, it was more expressed, and you can see it through the projects, that the students or the youngsters actually wanted to have their hands-on space project as an illustration of an existing subject that they learned in school. And that was extremely stressed throughout all these workshops and meetings and projects that we reviewed.

The pilot project proposal that came out, at least as a first set of four ideas, is not just to create a Space Festival, as you can see on the first point there. Space Festivals already exist in seven countries. Spaceweek International is organizing it and these are excellent venues. The idea is more to invite that what is being done during these festivals can be shared with others and the materials that are being prepared throughout these festivals or throughout the preparation of the festival, could be shared with others in a language that is comprehensive and distributable.

The second point which was a very important step towards the build-up of that database of knowledge was to create a platform for space literacy where we can gather all these materials that were prepared, pedagogical material or courses, lecture notes and all these things could be put into an accessible way to the availability of all the nations that would like to participate in space education projects.

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Also we would like, through this platform of space literacy, ask the initiators of space education projects to identify the best practices and the methods, the reasons and the ways they got successful.

So we went through these examples of pilot projects and we will bring this into a sort of an agreement that we would like to have with the major nations who are proposing or actually involved today in space and education projects to share this with other countries, in particular developing countries. The space organizations are invited to commit through the Charter to the following principles of sharing space education materials and to provide the basic set for duplication so that we can do this, all the nations can actually benefit from this at the minimum cost.

International bodies likes UNESCO would help the process to make this database available for their nations.

Those are the sort of conclusions that we came up with to our meeting and, of course, it was very important, and I am very happy today to have had the chance to present this to you, that all these starts need to be injected in the process of thinking that the UNISPACE recommendations have generated, in particularly through the Action Teams Numbers 17 and 18.

There will be proceedings of all these working groups and study groups that we will make available and, of course, there will be special events at the IAF plenary sessions in Bremen where we will show to the different nations how the generation hand-over can be somehow symbolically represented.

Thank you very much for your attention, Mr. Chairman and distinguished audience, and for your invitation.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): Thank you very much Mr. Philippe Willekens for your presentation which dealt with the very important issue of space and education.

Presentation on International GPS Service (IGS)

The next presentation will be made by Mrs. Ruth Neilan. She will talk on activities of the International GPS Service. You have the floor Madam.

Mrs. R. NEILAN (International GPS Service): I would like to thank the Chair and the Chairs of the Action Team Number 10 for providing

this opportunity to describe the International GPS Service.

I think that by describing these activities of the International GPS Service is very much in line with Action Team 10, as I think the Committee will see, and also is very much aligned with some of the goals and objectives of COPUOS.

I am here as the representative of the International GPS Service and my office is located at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

The outline of my presentation, and I have been asked to keep it brief, so there are a few slides I will go over very quickly, but I will describe what is the IGS, what we have accomplished, how what we do benefits science and society and then have a quick summary for you. And to improve the quality of this chart, I did put in a small picture here which is a typical GPS station in a remote area that is powered by solar power with wireless communications to bring the data back.

The IGS, in our stated mission, which you can read there, is committed to provide the highest quality data and products as a standard for global navigation systems, GNSS, in support of Earth science research, multidisciplinary applications and education and facilitate other applications which benefit society.

What the IGS is is an international network of about 350 stations, combined GPS and GLONASS. We produce the highest quality data anywhere, 3-5 centimetres orbits on GPS, 25 on GLONASS, producing coordinates and velocities of tracking stations, clock information, Earth rotation, ionosphere and tropospheric information. And I think what is really of great interest to the people and in terms of applications is how this kind of infrastructure can be used for various applications and projects.

Why is there IGS? We are coming up with 10 years of existence and the key factors in the formation of the IGS is that many of the organizations, geodetic and space agencies, realized the potential of GPS in the late 1980s. Goal, position anything to the millimetre level, anywhere in the world. We also knew that not one agency could assume all of the costs, so we joined with international partners to form a federation to set standards. We, therefore, implemented a global civilian tracking system for science and research and it has become the global framework for nearly all regional and national network applications.

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The IGS Organization currently has 200 contributing organizations in 80 countries with thousands of users. We are recognized as an international scientific service. We advocate open data policy with equal access to all users. Three hundred and fifty tracking stations, and you will see a map in a subsequent slide. We have been a service of the International Association Geodesy for 10 years and we will be celebrating our 10-year anniversary coming March 2004 in Berne, Switzerland. We are recognized by the IUGG and ICSU and we are a member of the UNISPACE III Action Team 10 on GNSS.

This chart is one I would just give you an idea of what it is and how we do it. To the upper left, you can see the constellation of satellites. We record the observations of these satellites, along the left-hand side of the chart, from receivers that transmit data via the Internet, telephone modem, radio links and even satellite links to global and regional data centres. The data is then organized and submitted to Global Data Centres, as you follow around the colourful circle, to various Analysis Centres which have coordinators for various aspects, classic orbit determination, reference frame, how the network operates, precise timing. And I think this constitutes the infrastructure. My office is at the bottom of the chart, at the bottom of the circle. I am from the Central Bureau which is responsible for the coordinated management of the various aspects of this service.

What is very interesting here, I think, for you are these projects and working groups that depend upon this global infrastructure. We have eight or nine now which are very linked to aspects for the social and multidisciplinary application.

Rather than go into all of the details of these, this is where I will pick up a little speed. I do not have that many charts anyway but the top one is reference frame. We provide the grid to which all measurements can be related. Our timing and frequency is jointly now recognized with the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures, excuse my French, I am not very good at that, it is joint with the BIPM in France. We also have a low-Earth project that looks at precise orbit determination for a number of the low-Earth orbiting satellites. And just a note here that these occultation and atmospheric profiling on-board the satellites, I am certain will revolutionize weather forecasting in this decade.

We have a GLONASS project where we do the same kind of processing with the GLONASS satellite system. This demonstrates the flexible model of the IGS. The tropospheric Working Group uses

ground-based GPS observations for weather forecasting and for severe storms and also potentially to tell you when it will rain in Wimbledon and if it will cancel the tennis match.

The other projects, ionosphere observations can be used to map the ionosphere globally. Sea-level is of interest because you can use observations at coastal locations to de-couple the subsidence from perhaps oil extraction or earthquakes to look at long-term sea-level rise. This is very key in terms of global warming.

We have a Real-Time Working Group to look at how we can deliver data and products for these kinds of applications more timely and a GNSS Working Group that will incorporate Galileo, the modernized GPS and any future GNSS.

I thought that I would just provide these beautiful pictures of some of these satellites that are low-Earth orbiters. The IGS does provide a lot of the ground tracking infrastructure for these and also the project uses data from on-board these satellites to look at orbit determination. These will be, I think, all on the website.

How the IGS has grown in the past 10 years. This is the roughly two dozen sites in 1991, hosted at that time mostly by space agencies and geodetic organizations. And this is a map of the network today with the 350 stations. All of this data is available via the Internet and open access.

This chart I will not go into. It just shows the difference in what you can get available directly from the satellites, roughly two and a half metre positional accuracy and by using the IGS products, you can use the 25 to 5 centimetre orbits to position yourself at the sub-centimetre level anywhere on the Earth.

Basic needs for geodetic networks. Any kind of system that needs geo-referencing needs a coordinate system and this comes back to some of the needs in developing countries and particularly what the Chair of the Action Team mentioned earlier in this session, what is happening within Africa, that all of these groups, surveying mapping, development programmes and hazard mitigation needs some kind of a reference system to plan regionally and for continental or global initiatives. So these long-term measurements over decades are really quite important, particularly as we move forward with this technology and these networks provide the fundamental infrastructure to make this possible.

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As was mentioned concerning Africa, this reference system is recognized as a way to bridge regional applications and development initiatives throughout the continent. This really is a key to modernizing the national reference systems, some of which date back a century.

One of the other parts of this is the importance of having communication in Internet for GNSS sustainability. This access to information and global data and technical advances is also dependent on this to increase the knowledge-base and capacity-building in developing countries.

One of the key issues is training, education, access to resources and also retention of quality personnel.

In summary, I would like to say that it is fairly evident that the economics of GPS and GNSS make this kind of technology available globally to all users. The outreach of the IGS and our contributing organizations enables users to take advantage of these systems and cooperatively with top international experts who really do provide a lot of input to furthering these products.

The standards and methodologies that have been developed are being adopted worldwide and as a civil scientific service, the IGS has become a global framework, albeit there are a number of places where this could be strengthened.

The final bullet ties into the activities of the Action Team and it is really important, and the IGS and my Governing Board would strongly support this, that we must ensure appropriate evolution and coordination and interoperability as we enter multiple GNSS systems. This is particularly important for society and scientific benefit.

We definitely support the Action Team 10’s recommendation to establish a GNSS Coordinating Board and I would like to give very high marks to the United Nations Regional Workshops, its sponsors, the United Nations, the United States and ESA, for organizing these and promoting GNSS in developing countries. It has provided a great venue for this.

This is the website where much of the information on IGS is located and I would like to underscore again that we are a federation with no central funding. We are an independent international civil organization and that it is really due to the contributions of all of our organizations who support

these activities and it shows what a collective vision and dedication can do that provides success for all.

I did have a number of sheets for hand-out. I think most of them are gone. There is a yellow sheet that you can pick up and all of this will be on the website as well as the IGS website, if you would like to find out more.

Thank you again, Mr. Chairman and delegates.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): I would like to especially thank the presentation of Mrs. Ruth Neilan for her illustrative presentation.

Presentation on CEOS World Summit Follow-Up

And the last presentation of the morning will be by Mr. Michael Hales of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites, CEOS. He will refer to the Programme, that is the World Summit on Sustainable Development Follow-Up Programme. You have the floor Sir.

Mr. M. HALES (Committee on Earth Observation Satellites): Mr. Chairman, on behalf of the CEOS which is the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites Chairman and IGOS, the Integrated Global Observing Strategy Co-Chairman, Mr. Gregory Withee of NOAA, which is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States, I would like to thank you very much for the opportunity to address this important meeting under your continued leadership. Likewise, I would like to express sincere appreciation to the COPUOS Secretary, Dr. Sergio Camacho Lara, for the excellent contributions made by the Office for Outer Space Affairs to make this event possible.

I am delighted to be here today to discuss what CEOS and IGOS are doing to help achieve many of the same goals and objectives also shared by COPUOS.

Specifically, areas where CEOS and IGOS are making contributions in the management and utilization of Earth observation data include education, training and capacity-building, disaster management, as well as efforts to integrate space-based and in situ observations in a strategy that will enable access to and use of space-based data in a sustainable way. Such integrated areas where observational gaps and overlaps and future requirements are being identified also comprise scientific investigation areas of the water

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cycle, carbon cycle, atmosphere, oceans, coastal areas and natural and societal challenges associated with geohazards.

As you know, Mr. Chairman, CEOS coordinates civil spaceborne observations of the Earth. Within CEOS, participating agencies strive to address critical scientific questions and to harmonize the planning of their satellite mission requirements. CEOS membership currently includes 23 space agencies from around the world and 20 international organizations that use spaceborne data in their activities.

In looking at an example of this cooperation, I am pleased to highlight how the former CEOS Disaster Management Support Group worked closely with the United Nations OOSA and others on defining and transferring technology-based solutions for disaster management. This group under CEOS published a report on disaster management observations that was well received by the disaster management community and helped co-support Regional Workshops on the Use of Space Technology for Disaster Management. I have brought copies of this report and hard copy and CD ROM and have placed them on the back table for those who would like to have it today.

The CEOS Working Group on Earth Observation Education and Training, being chaired by Dr. Sergio Camacho, includes representatives from delegations in this room whose organizations provide and use data for Earth observation education and training purposes. This Working Group is supporting CEOS’ education and training efforts through such activities as facilitating the leveraging of CEOS members’ and associates’ existing training materials; developing a framework for making Earth observation experts available for training; and working to adopt in November of this year at the CEOS Plenary in Colorado, a set of general data principles for education and training use, followed by a targeted request to space agencies for specific data sets to be used for education and training purposes.

Although these efforts, among many others, are carried out on a voluntary, best-efforts basis, significant progress is being made under the United Nations OOSA’s leadership and both CCRS’ of Canada and ESA’s vice-leadership of this Working Group.

CEOS Chairman, Gregory Withee, has identified two outreach areas of emphasis for his chairmanship this year. The first is increasing Earth observation data utilization. For this effort, a special Ad Hoc Data Utilization Team has been assembled to

better understand the right preconditions and barriers for data utilization and to help adopt better mechanisms among CEOS members and associates for increasing the utilization of space-based data. This focus is being placed on data utilization because it is through this process that the benefits of Earth observations and spaceborne technologies are transferred and realized by society and policy makers.

The second area of emphasis of the CEOS Chairman is on the follow-up to the 12 specific references on the importance of Earth observation in the Plan of Implementation, which was a significant outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

Under the CEOS WSSD Follow-Up Programme, which I am also the Team Leader, groups, or what we call modules, of CEOS members and associates have been established and are working together towards making significant contributions through a number of deliverables to CEOS and the space community at the CEOS Plenary in November.

Yesterday, the distinguished speaker from Morocco also discussed the CEOS WSSD Follow-Up Programme and detailed one of the two workshops that are taking place in Africa in October of this year. The first workshop will take place at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, 2 and 3 October, and will focus on developing a set of capacity-building principles specifically targeted for CEOS and the WSSD Follow-Up efforts, but applicable to the entire space community as well, in guiding future sustainable development capacity-building efforts in the areas including water resource management, disaster management and conflicts, climate change, and finally, the comprehensive topics of GIS, global mapping and land cover change.

The second workshop, which was mentioned by my Moroccan colleague, will take place in Rabat, 6 and 7 October, and will focus on water resource management. This workshop is a result of a cooperation established among ESA, UNESCO and CRTS and involves the TIGER project.

I am delighted to also report that much synergy exists between CEOS and IGOS in looking for connections between Earth observations and sustainability. For example, as a result of WSSD, IGOS is now emphasizing the importance of capacity-building and looking to link its efforts with similar CEOS activities when appropriate.

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To give you some background, the IGOS Partnership was established in June 1998 by a formal exchange of letters among the 13 founding partners for the definition, development and implementation of the Integrated Global Observing Strategy.

One of the key goals of IGOS is to provide the overarching view to help improve understanding by governments of the significance of global monitoring. Another goal is to offer a forum for an exchange of information on the Partners’ relevant activities and to promote dialogue among space agencies, as well as agencies supporting in situ observing systems and scientific research programmes.

Lastly, another key goal of IGOS that I would like to share is to identify gaps in existing observation systems and to seek to address IGOS-related user requirements, including requirements to strengthen institutional capabilities in the context of Earth observations.

We know the importance of building an integrated global observing strategy, as stated in the Vienna Declaration, adopted at UNISPACE III in 1999. In this Declaration, action was suggested to be taken to develop a comprehensive worldwide environmental monitoring strategy for long-term global observations, and to develop and implement IGOS so as to enable access to, and use of, space-based and other Earth observation data.

IGOS is working on environmental conventions such as the Conference of the Parties, or COP, of the United Nations, Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and, of course, COPUOS.

I am pleased to say that after having just attended the Tenth IGOS Partners’ Meeting in Paris last week, that IGOS is well underway to achieving the goals I have discussed here. IGOS Theme Teams in the areas of oceans, carbon, atmosphere, chemistry, global water cycle, geohazards, coastal zone areas are all in progress in either the reporting or implementation of these environmental observation components.

That being said, let me close this portion by stating that the CEOS and IGO organizations support the activities being discussed at this COPUOS meeting on the peaceful uses of space technologies. Thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to discuss the status of what CEOS and IGOS are doing in these areas and in our community through partnerships.

I would also like to just share a few slides. I had prepared a separate presentation but due to time, I just want to show a couple focused on the WSSD capacity-building efforts.

To set the context for this, not too long ago, CEOS Chairman, Gregory Withee, sat down with José Achache of ESA and others and very roughly estimated that in the next 10 years, there are plans to launch 100 new satellites with hundreds of instruments collecting observations of the Earth. While exciting as this discovery was for them, it was also daunting to realize that no integrated plan or framework exist to utilize this data collectively and transfer these benefits to society.

The United States, represented by NOAA, is the current CEOS Chair. In November of this year, the chairmanship will be passed to China and later again to the United Kingdom. Past leaders of CEOS include many notable agencies and organizations but recent leadership efforts by ESA, Japan and Brazil have enhanced this partnership greatly.

I mentioned in my statement the two goals of the Chair on utilization and CEOS WSSD Follow-Up, the scope of the utilization team is to better understand the complexities of utilization and adoption of Earth observation data, essentially through a number of investigations and interviews, they are trying to answer the question, why is achieving data utilization so easy sometimes and so difficult at others? In doing so, they have embarked to identify impediments to data utilization, the right preconditions that exist for adoption of Earth observation data utilization to occur and identifying ways to facilitate this adoption.

The other focus is the CEOS WSSD Follow-Up Programme which addresses the 12 specific references, as I mentioned in the Plan of Implementation. These references can be easily grouped into five categories of emphasis. As part of this strategy, CEOS has developed five module teams under the common umbrella of a follow-up programme to address each of these categories of capacity-building, water resource management, disaster management and conflicts, climate change and global mapping, land use monitoring and GIS.

CEOS has also adopted the strategy that module one on capacity-building and module five on geo-related technologies are cross-cutting and should also be emphasized and incorporated in each of the other areas.

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We understood that starting out, we would not be able to implement actions in all five teams in the first year. So this year, the first year after WSSD, CEOS is focused on launching modules one on capacity-building and modules two on water resource management to get early success in this initiative.

I think it is worth repeating many outcomes are anticipated this year as we move forward. Of note, are two workshops being planned for Africa in October. One will be module one, a capacity-building workshop, to take place 2 and 3 October in Stellenbosch, South Africa, in which stakeholders throughout Africa will gather to develop a set of capacity-building principles to be used by the space community, specifically CEOS, when addressing the needs of sustainable development with the use of space technologies.

I would just like to add that instead of CEOS going to an area of sustainable development and giving them the capacity-building principles, we are following the model that you have heard today that others have followed and doing our homework first and gathering stakeholders and experts and learning from them what the requirements are, what their needs are so that we can address these issues sustainably.

The second workshop which will take place in Rabat, Morocco, 6 and 7 October, at CRTS. This workshop will focus on water resource management issues and is the result of a cooperation again among ESA, UNESCO and CRTS.

I would also like to mention a third workshop being planned for 2004, possibly in Asia, to be a combined event of modules two on water resource management and modules one on capacity-building.

One of the key goals of the module one capacity-building workshop is to bring together stakeholders from throughout Africa and provide the space community inputs for consideration as we organize ourselves within CEOS to respond to sustainable development challenges in the wake of WSSD. These inputs will be used, as I said, to develop a list of capacity-building principles to be formally adopted by CEOS and used in the future implementation efforts associated with sustainable development.

CEOS would also like to provide these principles specifically targeted towards the space community and sustainable development to Action Team 17 on Capacity-Building to take into further account the WSSD focus on sustainable development.

I am confident that a closer cooperation between their experienced Action Team and our new module team on capacity-building will be one of the many positive outcomes of this meeting.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to forego showing the rest of my slides since I believe that most of this information has been presented in one form or another in my earlier statements. Nevertheless, for those interested in continuing informal discussions on CEOS’ sustainable development initiatives, I invite you to join me for a modest lunch in Room C0713. I would especially like to invite members of Action Team 17, the IAF and IAA study group representative and other representatives here today involved in capacity-building.

Thank you again, Mr. Chairman, this concludes my remarks.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): Thank you very much to Mr. Michael Hales for his very important and illustrative presentation.

We have a few minutes remaining. If the delegates would like to ask any questions to our distinguished presenters.

If there are no questions, I have just a couple of observations which I feel are relevant.

First, all the presentations have been extraordinarily interesting. I would like to briefly refer first to Mr. Philippe Willekens’ presentation and I am wondering if I could have the intellectual support of two distinguished jurists that are here in the room, not that the others in the room are not also distinguished, but I am thinking of Professors Kopal and Marchisio. If they would be so kind as to concur with me that in Mr. Willekens’, there is a basically scientific and technological emphasis slant. And that is my point of view and I am being very candid here. And I am doing so to establish as fruitful a dialogue as possible.

From my point of view, I would say that it might be good to consider including social sciences and this could take into account the fact that, as you indicated, focus on developing countries, for developing countries that conceptual reference of social sciences is very important to bear in mind. So that is my first observation.

As I see neither Professor Marchisio nor Professor Kopal are reacting, I am wondering if they

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support what I am saying. Neither have anything to say so I guess we will not get to hear their reactions.

Now with regard to GPS, I would just like to say that this is truly a very important topic. In other words, it can also be used to save lives. It has a strong social impact but it did have one small detail I would like you to clarify please. What is the legal status of your organization? Is it a State-run organization? Is it academic? Is it an NGO? What is the status of your organization? If you could please answer that question before we move on to the last presentation. We just have a few minutes left. Tell me the legal status please of your organization.

Mrs. R. NEILAN (International GPS Service): Yes, Mr. Chairman, currently we are a federation and as part of our strategic plan, the current legal entities are those participating groups. We do not have an independent legal entity at this point. However, the Governing Board is moving towards establishing the IGS as a legal entity.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): Thank you very much. I would like to put the same question to Mr. Michael Hales because apparently they are dependent, in a way, although I am not sure I understood properly. So again very briefly if you could just fill us in on your legal status. Here I am dependent on the Secretariat, they, the conference officers and interpreters and so forth all have very important work. It is truly very helpful to us though but two questions for you, Mr. Hales, the first is to request a favour. You referenced six areas that you identified of special interest to developing nations in a report of 54 pages and I would ask that that report could be studied. In other words, can we have access to the report, hopefully in the course of this meeting.

My second question is, once again, what is the legal status of the CEOS and how are these data obtained? Is it commercially obtained or non-commercially? If you could be as concise as possible in your answer please.

Mr. M. HALES (Committee on Earth Observation Satellites): Thank you Mr. Chairman. Yes, I do have a document that I can put together and photocopy and put at the back table that specifically lists the 12 references to Earth observations and the Plan of Implementation which is how those areas that I emphasized in my discussion were developed as common areas in these 12 references. So I will provide that per your request.

Secondly, CEOS and IGOS are both intergovernmental organizations so each of them have a tied-to partnership as an outcome of WSSD and are represented in the CSD meetings in New York last month. The way that NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is currently involved this year is through a rotating chairmanship, so this year the United States received the Chair and Mr. Gregory Withee is the Chairman. Next year it goes to China, the year after that to the United Kingdom. So among the 23 space agencies and 20 associate members, there is a rotating chairmanship. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): I am sorry. I must re-insist on my third question for Mr. Hales. There is a third question that I put but perhaps I was not clear enough and that is with regard to the data that you obtain. Is it commercial or non-commercial? In terms of access of the data.

Mr. M. HALES (Committee on Earth Observation Satellites): Mr. Chairman, the data is data that is collected by national space agencies or, I guess, international cooperations such as ESA. It is their data but we are encouraging them to adopt data principles to share this data free of charge for education and training purposes. The data is available commercially as well. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): Thank you for your very complete response. And I would like to once again thank all of you for the three excellent presentations that we have heard and I would have liked to hear some delegates reactions but we have not benefited as much and I know that you have travelled here before.

Distinguished delegates, before ending this session, I would like to inform you of the work programme for this afternoon. We will be resuming with item 7 and we will also continue with item 8 and if there is time, we will begin item 9, which is the report of the Legal Subcommittee.

At the end of the plenary this afternoon, at 5.30 p.m., the Working Group responsible for the report to the General Assembly on the progress achieved in terms of UNISPACE III recommendations will hold its second meeting under the chairmanship of Mr. Niklas Hedman of Sweden.

This session is now adjourned.

The meeting closed at 1.00 p.m.