News Alert: Earth observation: Global cooperation becomes reality

Representatives of around 60 nations and over 40 international organisations endorsed 16 February 2005 a 10-year plan with concrete steps towards comprehensive co-operation in Earth observation. Over the next decade, this system will increase our understanding of the Earth and how it works. With benefits as broad as the planet itself, this initiative promises to make peoples and economies around the globe healthier, safer and better equipped to manage their basic daily needs. The aim is to create an observation system as interrelated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects, providing the science on which sound policy and decision-making can be built.