The impacts of climate change are increasingly being felt at local level, calling for decisions at regional scale. The mission of the Space for Climate Observatory (SCO) is to provide change indicators combining global satellite data with ground data, for example on health, economies and the environment. 

Key figures as of September 1, 2025

• 55 SCO Charter signatories
• 3 UN programmes
• 84 projects accredited in France
• 23 French member organizations and ministries

Key milestones 

An international call for projects is launched every year on September 1st.
Participation in all COPs and IACs since 2021, as well as major international events (GLOC, Living Planet Symposium, IUCN, UNOOSA forums…), which are key opportunities to hold international steering committees. See the SCO agenda.

• March 2025: 3rd SCO France Congress
• December 2024: Declaration of the One Water Summit in Riyadh
• May 2023: 2nd SCO France Congress
• September 1, 2022: Entry into force of the International SCO Charter, developed by all members under the coordination of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA)
• December 2021: 1st SCO France Congress
• March 2020: Announcement of the first batch of 14 SCO-labeled projects in France
• November 2019: First meeting of SCO France Inter-Organization Committee (CIO) defines project typologies ahead of first SCO France call for projects
• October 2019: First Steering Committee Meeting held on the sidelines of the 70th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Washington, D.C. (USA)
• September 2019: Launch of the 1st SCO France Call for Projects
• June 17, 2019: Space for Climate Observatory officially launched by CNES at the Paris Air Show (Le Bourget)
• December 11, 2017: Inception of SCO at the One Planet Summit on the initiative of France and CNES

Project in brief

Satellite data are crucial to understanding climate change. In fact, more than half of the variables required to study it can only be obtained from space. International organizations like the IPCC rely on this information to provide a global picture, but a link is missing to scale it to local needs.

CNES first formulated the need to cross-correlate existing satellite data and field data to deliver analytics, foresight and simulation tools to underpin local responses to climate change in 2017 at the One Planet Summit in Paris. France then steered this programme through its early stages up to the creation in June 2019 of the Space for Climate Observatory (SCO). Today the SCO federates together signatories from around the world.

Developed at the local level, SCO-labeled projects are enabling decision-makers to address such crucial issues as shoreline retreat, rising urban temperatures, the spread of epidemics or flood management, to name a few.

CNES’s role

As an international initiative founded on best-effort principles, the SCO has a multilateral governance structure.

In France, the SCO programme is led by CNES, which heads up the SCO France Executive Bureau and coordinates the Inter-Organization Committee (CIO).

On the international stage, CNES runs the SCO’s General Secretariat.

A Focal Point is designated in each member state to attend Steering Committee meetings, which chart the SCO’s course. A sub-group of these Focal Points forms the Programmes Committee, which supervises members’ SCO activities (projects and working groups). These committees and all activities are supported by the General Secretariat, under the responsibility of an SCO member (Focal Point).

Contacts

Programme Director
Frédéric Bretar
E-mail: frederic.bretar at cnes.fr

Programme Director
Laurence Monnoyer-Smith
E-mail: laurence.monnoyer-smith at cnes.fr