World Economic Forum Releases New Report on Bringing Space Down to Earth

Sunday, January 26, 2014

The World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Space Security has published a preview of a new book examining the important role space technology and capabilities play in addressing our most pressing challenges on Earth. The preview provides a snapshot of the role for space in the following areas:

• Communications Satellites and the Future Telecoms Ecosystem
• Using Space Technology to Improve Education in Remote, Rural and Infrastructure-challenged Regions: Africa, India and Beyond
• Space Technology and Human Health
• Precision Agriculture and Food Security
• Using Space Technologies to Protect Human Rights on Earth
• Climate Change and Space
• Space Assets for Arctic Governance
• The Sustainable Management of Forests, Fisheries and Water
• Using Space Technologies to Help Disaster Management
• Nuclear Security and Satellites
• Building Capacity to Prepare for Catastrophic Risks from Space

It also provides an overview of some of the key challenges to the long-term sustainability of space activities and the ability to provide these benefits in the future including space debris, radiofrequency interference, and strategic stability in space.

Work on the book began in 2012 under the Council Chairmanship of SWF Technical Advisor Brian Weeden and continued under the current Council Chairmanship of SWF Advisory Committee member Dr. Kazuto Suzuki. Dr. Suzuki highlighted the report during his participation in the 2014 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The Council plans to publish the full chapters on each of the topics over the course of the following year.

A PDF version of the Executive Summary can be downloaded from the WEF website here.