Read our latest blog – a rousing, positive message delivered at the UK Space Agency Earth Observation Townhall
No-one can deny that it is a challenging time for the Earth Observation community global.
Economic pressures, shifting priorities and the undeniably urgent demands of go political security and defence combine and compete.
It is against this backdrop that the UK Space Agency – which chairs Space4Climate and is a core funder – hosted an Earth Observation Townhall event on March 19 (2026) .
Space4Climate, having presented our own changes in our programme and membership model to meet the changes in the landscape, was invited to address the audience.
Our Climate Services and Development Manager Krupa Nanda Kumar set out a rousing, positive message in her presentation:
By Krupa Nanda Kumar, Climate Services development Manager, Space4Climate
It’s great to see so many members of the community here today. What this room represents is something quite unique: the strength of the UK’s satellite Earth observation community. Across industry, academia and policy, we have built one of the most collaborative and capable ecosystems anywhere in the world.
My name is Krupa Nanda Kumar and I am programme manager at Space4Climate. Space4Climate is the UK’s collaborative non-commercial membership programme. It spans academia, research, industry, and policy, working across the Satellite Earth Observation and climate communities, chaired by the UK Space Agency and hosted by the National Centre for Earth Observation.
Since 2014, we’ve united the UK’s strengths in Earth Observation and satellite climate technology to turn trusted data from space into climate action on the ground. Our members work together to ensure a seamless supply chain of climate data, from satellites to end users, helping sectors like finance, agriculture, energy, and government make informed, climate-smart decisions.
Today we enter the next phase of the Space4Climate programme from a position of genuine strength. Membership has grown to a record 93 organisations. Importantly, we are seeing more industry participation than ever before, alongside strong academic leadership and increasing engagement from sectors beyond the space community.
Over the past three years, Space4Climate has supported members to showcase UK capabilities on the global stage including the first Space Pavilion presence at COP28 in Dubai, helping position the UK Space Agency as a trusted and reliable partner in climate action from space.
Through workshops and targeted engagement with government and industry, we have connected the space sector with real decision-makers from civil servants across government departments to risk teams in major financial institutions.
And perhaps most importantly, we have acted as a connector for the ecosystem.
In the past three years alone, Space4Climate has facilitated more than 270 introductions between end users, partners and members, and supported over 90 member appearances on panels and speaking platforms. These moments of visibility and connection are often where collaborations begin and markets start to open.
We’ve also secured event platforms and showcases for members across multiple major conferences, ensuring the UK Earth Observation community has a strong and visible voice in climate conversations.
Lastly, Space4Climate has helped secure £300,000 in funding to generate openly available market insights and roadmaps for the commercial uptake of Earth Observation applications across sectors such as emissions monitoring, financial disclosure, agriculture and nature finance.
A quick overview of what our market breakthrough phase 1 and 2 achieved , to support market led innovation and provide insightful market intelligence for product strategy and commercialization for the EO sector.
The agriculture cohort
- Diagnosed 150+ adoption barriers across technical, behavioural, and market dimensions
- Identified high-value use cases (e.g. crop monitoring, soil health, emissions tracking)
- Delivered a sector-wide roadmap for EO integration
The GHG Emissions cohort through their market engagement
- Mapped UK regulatory and compliance landscape across key emitting sectors
- Identified capability gaps in EO for operational and regulatory use
- Demonstrated landfill emissions as a high-potential use cases through tasking and detecting during the course of the project active emission from a landfill site in England. The landfill site was contacted and agreed to work together on intervention and future studies.
- The work also highlighted near-term, revenue-generating applications and clarified requirements for EO providers to meet regulatory-grade data needs
The sustainable finance cohort explored how EO can support climate-related financial disclosures and risk management. The report
- Bridged EO capabilities with financial reporting framework IFRS S2
- Identified use cases in risk assessment, portfolio analysis, and reporting
- Delivered guidance for financial institutions on EO integration
- Positioned EO as an input to decision-critical financial workflows through roundtables and workshops
We further funded two projects to continue working on addressing the top problem statements that were noted in phase 1.
The agriculture cohort worked to enable real-world adoption of EO by addressing the “last mile” gap between data and farm decisions. The report:
- Demonstrates how EO can be embedded into existing advisory and supply chain models
- Reframes EO value around near-term economic benefits (yield, resilience, cost savings)
- Enables service-based business models integrated into farm workflows
The Nature finance cohort
- Developed a decision framework pretotype for EO use in MRV and finance
- Mapped EO capabilities against carbon and nature standards working with the various code authorities
- Positioned EO as a core component of MRV systems, unlocking scalable demand
Across all five workstreams, the market breakthrough work delivered a coherent commercialisation support pathway and accelerated EO integration into Farm advisory systems, Regulatory compliance processes, Financial reporting and risk models repositioning EO from a technical capability to a trusted, decision-critical service embedded in real markets
These achievements highlight something important: the UK has a world-class Earth Observation capability, but its real strength lies in the way our community works together to translate science and technology into real-world solutions.
And that context is becoming more important than ever.
Climate and nature loss are no longer just environmental challenges. They are increasingly recognised as matters of national resilience, economic stability and security. Put simply, there is no long-term national security without climate and nature security.
Over the next three years, we will increasingly focus on turning capability into adoption.
That is where the next chapter of Space4Climate comes in.
Our updated mission reflects this shift: to drive adoption of trusted satellite Earth Observation technology and climate services that fuel commercial growth, strengthen national resilience and deliver societal and environmental value.
It means demonstrating the economic value of satellite-enabled services so that Earth Observation becomes embedded in how organisations manage climate risk, monitor nature, and make long-term decisions.
And it means accelerating research and innovation so that the exceptional science coming from the UK translates into operational services with real-world impact.
The commercial opportunity here is significant. As climate risk becomes a core consideration across the global economy, Earth Observation is becoming an essential layer of the climate intelligence infrastructure.
The UK has the science, the talent and the industrial capability to lead in this space.
But as we pursue those opportunities, we must remain grounded in the foundation that makes this sector possible.
Earth Observation is not only about markets. It is about long-term climate understanding. Sustained observation, trusted data and rigorous climate science remain essential if we are to understand environmental change and build resilience against the risks ahead.
The changes we are introducing to the Space4Climate programme are designed to support this next phase of growth while ensuring long-term sustainability.
The next three years are about delivery, adoption and impact.
The opportunity ahead is significant, and together we are well positioned to seize it.
If you are not already a member then talk to us today about joining this thriving community; if you are a member or would like to partner with us, then we welcome your involvement in the exciting activities ahead.