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Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I am
delighted to welcome you here to dinner as guests of Her Majesty’s
Government this evening at the conclusion of the CEOS Plenary meeting.
First of all, I hope you will enjoy being here
in this historic house. I hasten to add it is not a typical London home.
There is a famous quotation from Queen Victoria
who ruled this country in the late 19th century. She said when coming
here from Buckingham Palace to see the Duchess of Sutherland here at
Lancaster House, “I have come from my house to your Palace”.
Can I also say how honoured the UK is to be
hosting the CEOS plenary here in London and to see a record attendance
at this plenary meeting from across the five continents. I am
particularly pleased to welcome newcomers to the Plenary and to say how
delighted I am that we are extending the sphere of CEOS interests. I am
sure that this will lay the ground for better cooperation and improved
coordination amongst us all.
I believe that CEOS has an important part to
play in helping us deliver a number of high priority global political
objectives aimed at offering our citizens a better, safer and more
secure life. Let me outline just three areas in which I believe CEOS can
contribute often working with others including working within the Group
on Earth Observation (GEO) framework.
First, we should not under-estimate the
potential threat from climate change to global political stability. If
our current predictions for the rise in global average temperatures are
fulfilled, the changed patterns of agriculture could result in
population pressures and movements sufficient to cause boundary disputes
and even wars.
Similarly pressures following population
movements could result from the predicted significant rises in sea
levels. We must understand climate change and its consequences better.
This must be one of our highest global priorities.
To do that we need more space-borne earth
observation. We also need better coordination and use of existing
observations. We need to ensure that space agencies work together
through CEOS to identify the priority measurements which are needed –
and to ensure that those measurements are delivered on a consistent
basis.
Second, we have seen over the past year the way
in which a range of natural disasters – whether tsunami, earthquake, or
hurricane – can overwhelm both developed and developing countries.
Again, space-borne earth observation can contribute to giving all our
citizens safer lives. I hope that CEOS will work in the GEO framework to
help establish multi-hazard systems able to save lives by better
prediction of disasters and better management of disasters if and when
they occur.
Third, we must continue to respond to the call
which came from the World Summit on Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg in 2002 – to make available to everyone in the world the
benefits which can flow from the wise application of science and
technology. Again CEOS can contribute by improving the access of
developing countries to the benefits of space-borne earth observation
and by improving their capacity to use the information as it becomes
available.
I know that CEOS is already addressing these
issues, but I would like to turn now to what CEOS has achieved over the
past twelve months.
We have worked closely with the Strategic
Implementation Team (SIT) Chair to enhance its role and to encourage
CEOS to look to a fresh future in the era of the GEO. We have, with
colleagues, also worked to develop the role of the Troika – the past,
present and future CEOS Chairs who will bring their combined knowledge
and experience to bear in order to provide greater breadth, depth and
continuity to the CEOS leadership.
In addition we have worked to broaden the CEOS
grouping by deepening relationships and bringing into the CEOS family a
wider range of countries than ever before. We have tried to get CEOS on
to a firm course for the future, and your work over the past two days
has played a key part in developing the role of CEOS so that it is fit
for purpose in the 21st century.
The links that you have forged with the Group on
Earth Observation will, I believe, ensure that CEOS is seen as an
organisation that is key to delivering this important global agenda. In
addition the work of the CEOS Task Force during the course of this year,
which has been endorsed at the Plenary, has laid the foundations for
good governance of CEOS in the coming years.
I would like to thank Colin Hicks who has done
an excellent job as CEOS chairman over the past year. My thanks also go
to the Plenary organisers – both my own department, the Department of
Trade and Industry but also co-sponsors from within the British National
Space Centre Partnership – the Natural Environment Research Council and
the UK Met Office, and to you, our guests, for attending and
contributing to this important meeting.
Our efforts this year have been helped
enormously by the contribution of Minister Xu and his team as part of
the invaluable troika of past, present and future chairs who work
together in cooperation to create continuity and progress for CEOS.
I would also like to congratulate Conrado
Varotto and CONAE in Argentina, who will take over from Colin Hicks and
BNSC as CEOS chair this year. We will work enthusiastically with him and
his team to continue the important work of CEOS. I am also delighted we
have settled the sequence on Chairs to follow Argentina – first, USA,
and then South Africa.
As space becomes more and more accessible, I am
often reminded of the comment made by Fred Hoyle in one of our
newspapers – the Observer on 9 September 1979. He said, “Space isn’t
remote at all. Its only an hour’s drive away if your car could go
straight upwards”.
Today, as we find more and more uses of space it
seems ever closer. We recently saw, for example, the successful launch
of Topsat, the low cost micro satellite for earth observation at 2.5
metres resolution. And I also welcome the successful launch of
Beijing-1, launched alongside Topsat, which will contribute
significantly to global disaster monitoring.
Increasingly satellites are seen to be providing
real value in emergency situations such as the south east Asian tsunami
on Boxing Day last year, the earthquake which recently had such a
devastating effect in Pakistan and the terrible hurricanes which have
afflicted our US colleagues.
Finally I want to say that it has been an honour
for the UK to lead CEOS over the past 12 months. I hope that you will
feel that we pass it to our successor in good order and with our very
best wishes for the future.
I will now hand over to Colin Hicks for some
closing remarks.
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