On Thursday, 30 January, EARSC launched the user uptake webinar series within the SDGs-EYES project, running from January to May 2025, to engage stakeholders, foster collaboration, and promote Copernicus-based services across five pilot areas. The first webinar focused on GHG Emissions from Forest Fires: Advancing SDGs Indicators Monitoring, Reporting, and Accounting.
Building on previous SDGs-EYES co-design workshops and test validation activities, where potential users helped shape the pilot services, this webinar marked a crucial step toward the operational deployment of the platform, ensuring that it meets user needs. The session featured a moderated panel discussion and targeted breakout sessions, offering a space for productive expert dialogue to refine the platform, identify synergies with existing services, and explore opportunities for wider adoption across other communities and EU countries.
Key Highlights
- Timely GHG reporting with EO data: EO data can enhance GHG emissions reporting by providing timely, granular regional insights, although validation and integration challenges remain.
- Enhanced emissions estimates using EO and biomass data: Integrating EO data with detailed land use maps and forest inventories refines emissions estimates beyond traditional binary burnt area classifications.
- Technical limitations in EO-based emissions estimation: EO struggles to detect small or sub-canopy fires, and current models lack robust validation. While EO-integrated monitoring shows promise, scaling to national and EU levels requires reliable calibration data.
- Bottlenecks in adopting EO for emissions reporting: Institutions resist EO methodologies due to concerns about uncertainty and inconsistent time series data. Public authorities prioritise long-term comparability and the frequent changes in EO products contribute to this reluctance.
- Hybrid approaches for enhanced emissions monitoring: Combining EO data with national inventories – merging satellite-based fire detection with in situ biomass data – offers a promising path for improved emissions monitoring.
- Ensuring consistent and standardised EO data: Establishing standardised protocols and validation mechanisms is essential to align EO-derived data with traditional GHG accounting for policy credibility.
Key Takeaways and Next Steps
Overall, the webinar facilitated a shared understanding among participants that, while EO-based emissions tracking for GHG emissions offers significant advantages, its successful adoption depends on addressing technical, institutional, and methodological barriers. Strengthening capacity, ensuring long-term data reliability, and developing hybrid models that blend EO insights with traditional statistical methods will be essential steps in improving GHG emissions monitoring in the EU.
There was broad agreement on the need for closer collaboration between research institutions, national statistical offices, forestry experts, private companies, and policymakers to advance EO-based emissions monitoring systems. Participants highlighted the importance of a co-design and validation approach, as championed by SDGs-EYES, and stressed the need to align efforts with existing initiatives to maximise impact and avoid duplication.
Looking ahead, the webinar also highlighted opportunities for collaboration between the pilot GHG emissions initiative and its defined user community. The session successfully sparked interest from potential users who are keen to test the pilot’s platform and apply it within their own frameworks.
If you missed the live session, you can review the webinar recording here!