Space solutions for a sustainable world – 35 testimonials

Space. An infinite expanse of scientific knowledge awaiting discovery. For those who have ventured into Space, what often most fascinates them is the beauty and vulnerability of our planet Earth.

In a world beset by climate change, poverty, famine, war and pandemics, the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development sets out 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to promote prosperity, the planet’s well-being, peace, and partnerships and to protect people, 17 bold and transformative steps, which are urgently needed to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path.

This exhibition looks at the integral role that Space has to play in the United Nations 2030 Agenda. To this end, we have interviewed 35 people from fishermen to astronauts, from students to climate experts, to examine how space technologies contribute to the attainment of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

We shall see how space innovation is promoting economic growth, sustainable development and gender equality, while finding pioneering solutions for ecological transition. We shall see how Earth observation is providing scientists with essential damage diagnostics relating to the melting of our glaciers, rising sea levels, and weather events to understand climate change. We shall see how communication satellites and geolocalisation monitor fields and forests, protect wildlife, retrieve valuable farming land, locate schools, and reconnect people and businesses in the remotest parts of the world. And we shall see how the relationship between space research and life on Earth is creating priceless partnerships between nations and governments, entrepreneurs and organisations, and, especially, among the people of the world: researchers and scientists, teachers and pupils, doctors and patients, farmers and the consumers of their products – partnerships that involve all of us.

In the race to conquer Space we should strive to ensure that our ultimate and most precious goal is a sustainable, protected, poverty-free and peaceful planet.

Curators
Fiorella Coliolo, Benoit Delplanque