Over 650 delegates from government, UN bodies, the non-governmental sector, private sector, academia and civil society will gather in Abu Dhabi between 6 and 8 October for the Eye on Earth Summit 2015, to bridge the information gap policy makers face in designing plans for sustainable development.
The experts gathered will explore solutions and actions necessary for greater access to, and sharing of, environmental, social and economic data to support sustainable development. The Summit will address the profound impact that rapid economic and industrial development is having on natural resources, biodiversity and consumption patterns around the world. These global challenges require international collaborative action to find transformative solutions that span political boundaries and help secure a sustainable future for all. One of the critical first steps – and the focus of Eye on Earth Summit 2015 - is to address the need for evidence-based decision-making that can benefit from the available wealth of scientific data, information and knowledge, if they are made more accessible to all.
Eye on Earth is a collaborative effort between the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi through the Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative (AGEDI), and the Eye on Earth Alliance, a partnership of organizations that aim to build and mobilize global support for access to environmental data. As part of its ongoing expansion, the Alliance has recently grown to include, in addition to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the World Resources Institute (WRI).
The announcement of the Summit dates follows a meeting of representatives from the Eye on Earth community in Bonn, Germany to provide input into the development of indicators to track some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and to discuss how to support the data and information needed to implement them. A set of 17 goals with 169 targets, the SDGs cover a broad range of sustainable development issues, including ending poverty and hunger, improving health and education, making cities more sustainable, combating climate change, and protecting oceans and forests. The work of Eye on Earth is expected to be pivotal in providing the necessary data required to measure the progress and impact of the SDGs, with current and future Special Initiative (SI) projects aligning closely with them to ensure the provision of relevant, timely and accessible information.
A global audience will participate in the Summit and contribute to the dialogue via online and social media tools. Information on how to take part in the event will be shared via the Eye on Earth website.