Press CONFERENCE ON APPLICATION OF OUTER SPACE

 

TECHNOLOGY TO DEVELOPMENT

 

(Issued on 19 October 2004.)

In a new era of international cooperation for outer space, operational space applications were being used to support the global development agenda, correspondents were told at a Headquarters press conference this morning.

Noting that a series of events would be taking place in the coming days to focus global attention on the role of space and science technology in human development, Adigun Ade Abiodun, the Chairman of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space said the General Assembly’s Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) would be taking up an omnibus resolution this afternoon on the peaceful uses of outer space.  A panel discussion, entitled “Outer Space and the Global Agenda” would take place tomorrow in the Trusteeship Council Chamber.  Panellists would include the President of the Economic and Social Council, and the General Assembly President would also address the panel.

In another event, he said the General Assembly would be reviewing progress in the implementation of the recommendations of the 1999 Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III) on Wednesday, 20 October.  At the conclusion of the UNISPACE III, Member States had made a series of recommendations to address the role of space and science technology in meeting the needs of humanity.  The Committee had established 12 action teams to address how to implement the recommendations.  The goal in the next few days was to present to the General Assembly and the international community what had been achieved to date in those areas.

“Space was moving to development” would be the message of the meetings in the next days, said Ambassador Walter Lichem of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs.  In the past, security policies and technology power had been expressed in terms of space capacities.  Today, the world was moving to a new space age, namely the developmental or application age, in which space capacity could be key in addressing issues such as natural resource management, disaster reduction management and the environment.

Continuing, he noted that in its new approximation to the development community, the space community had, through its space agencies, developed a new attitude and new programmes of solidarity.  Just one year ago he had participated in the first regional African meeting on space application for water management in Rabat.  Another meeting would be taking place in Pretoria.  Work had been underway on a pilot project to apply space technology to water management in Africa.  More than 100 project applications had been submitted for the Pretoria meeting.

Space had to be invited, and was being invited, into the global agenda discourse, he added.  Tomorrow, for the first time, the President of the Economic and Social Council would be participating in an outer space debate.  Space was moving to development.  It was no longer a matter of engineering the tractor:  the tractor now had to go to the field.

Was there a hidden agenda in President George Bush’s fervent endorsement of developing outer space? a correspondent asked.

Responding, Mr. Abiodun noted that space had started as a political agenda.  Today, the discussion focused on space as a tool for development.  Last year, President Bush had invited the international community to participate in the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), a programme in which countries would use their space assets to address human needs.  Such a global programme could not contain a hidden agenda.

Also responding, Sergio Camacho-Lara, Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, said there were two aspects of space, which were now beginning to merge.  The work of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space did not touch on the militarization of space.  Whereas countries disagreed in the Conference on Disarmament or in the First Committee on how space should be developed, they found common ground in the Outer Space Committee because they had common interests.

The GEOSS programme, an initiative of the Group of Eight, was far reaching, he said.  The concept was to integrate the data of all major Earth observation systems or satellites into virtual coordination.  That did not mean that the system would be controlled by one entity.  A tremendous amount of data and information would be available for decision-makers, allowing countries to meet their obligations under conventions, for example.

Asked who would run GEOSS, he said that issue was currently being discussed.  It had been proposed that the programme not be run by a new international organization, but by an existing one.  Participating governments would manage the programme.  The information would be made available to anyone who needed it.  Information was already available free-of-charge through the Internet.  Some information would be available at a low cost, while high resolution data would be available at a higher cost.

Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu, a former astronaut and Romania’s Ambassador in Moscow, said the work of the Outer Space Committee, as reflected by its name, focused on the peaceful uses of outer space.  Its main objective was to promote effective means for using space solutions to address problems of regional or global significance.  The United Nations had organized several international conferences in 1968, 1982 and 1999 on the peaceful uses of outer space.  The UNISPACE III had culminated in the Vienna Declaration, which established the direction Member States should follow in the next decade.  All of its recommendations were in line with the outcome of the other development conferences, including, for example, the World Summit on Sustainable Development and the World Summit on the Information Society.

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