Participants to the 38th CEOS Plenary in Montreal, Canada
On October 22-24, the Canadian Space Agency had the honour to host the 38th Plenary meeting at its Headquarters located in St-Hubert, Québec. The meeting chaired by Eric Laliberté, the CSA 2024 CEOS Chair, was attended by 85 participants onsite, with 28 attendees joining virtually. To highlight this unique occasion, CSA invited the 38th CEOS Plenary to support the Montreal Statement, a document essentially renewing our collective desire to collaborate on global challenges at the occasion of CEOS 40th anniversary.
The year 2024 marked the 40th anniversary of CEOS. This important milestone was celebrated throughout the meeting, but more specifically during a special evening held at the historic Château Ramezay, downtown Montreal; an evening during which Canada’s French heritage was showcased.
The past, current, and future CEOS Chair celebrated the 40th Anniversary of CEOS.
Most decisions submitted to the CEOS Principals had been prepared during the SIT Technical Workshop held in Australia in September. In particular, the mandate of the Ecosystem Extent Task Team (EETT) created 2 years ago was formally recorded as completed. As next steps, CEOS Plenary agreed to establish a Biodiversity Study Team (BST) as an evolution of the EETT to undertake a one-year mandate to consider the best options for CEOS to address the broader topic of biodiversity in the years to come. The new BST is to be led by the existing co-leads of the CEOS EETT and supported by other interested CEOS members.
In addition, CEOS Plenary endorsed the following: (1) the Issue 2 of the CEOS-CGMS Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Roadmap (2024), (2) the CEOS Analysis Ready Data Strategy 2024 ,(3) the 2024 update to the CEOS Strategic Guidance document, (4) the 2024 update of the Terms of Reference of the Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS), and (5) the CEOS Analysis Ready Data Strategy 2024. The Plenary also agreed that the WGDisasters and its EW4All subgroup should lead the CEOS response to the UN’s Early Warnings for All (EW4All) initiative.
In addition to a Canadian digital showcase of biodiversity activities presented over the 2 days of the Plenary, the CEOS Chair presented a summary of the biodiversity priority and highlighted the main actions taken to move the priority forward. These include wide consultations with CEOS members, the organization of a 2-day workshop with international biodiversity players (UNCBD, GEO, GEOBON, FAO, UNDP) leading to a draft Joint Communiqué on biodiversity (still to be reviewed by all parties), and the development of a proposal to explore appropriate organizational structure for continued efforts on biodiversity in CEOS.
A scene at the 38th CEOS Plenary 2024
In the area of CEOS governance and leadership roles, Medhavy Thankappan of Geoscience Australia was confirmed as Vice Chair of the Working Group on Calibration and Validation (WGCV) and Vincent-Henri Peuch of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) was confirmed as Vice Chair of the CEOS/CGMS Working Group on Climate (WGClimate). In addition, CEOS agencies interested to contribute to an 18-month Essential Agriculture Variables (EAV) stock take and LSI-VC Subgroup on GEOGLAM scoping effort were asked to identify points of contact. The same request was made to entities willing to assist with the detailed assessment of the CEOS External Request Process for the UNCCD support request.
Furthermore, the CEOS principals welcomed UKSA as 2025 CEOS Chair whose priority focus is two-fold: (1) attracting youth to the EO sector, and (2) to study how EO data can be better used for the provision of public services. Finally, the CEOS Plenary endorsed the nomination of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) as 2026 CEOS Chair, to be supported by Geoscience Australia and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, in representation of the Asia-Pacific region.
In addition to the CEOS 40th anniversary celebration, participants also had the chance to experience firsthand Indigenous history and contribution to today’s Canadian society during an evening at La Maison autochtone.
The Beautiful garden of historic La Maison autochtone
CSA was privileged to chair CEOS in 2024 and to welcome CEOS representatives at our headquarters, some for the last time. As they have now retired, we are pleased that the valuable contributions of Charles Wooldridge (NOAA) and Eric Laliberté (CSA) made over the course of their respective careers were highlighted during the meeting.
CSA wishes to thank all CEOS entities that have contributed to CEOS activities and to the success of this Plenary, as well as the Symbios team for the continuous support throughout the year. Special thanks to JAXA for their friendship and professionalism as SIT Chair. We wish UKSA a productive 2025 chairmanship year!
The CEOS Chairmanship was handed over from the CSA Team to the UKSA Team
-CSA 2024 CEOS Chair team
