Eight years ago in this very location, the United Arab Emirates, in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) launched an initiative called the Abu Dhabi Environmental Data Initiative (AGEDI) with the intention of closing the environmental information gap between developed and developing countries. AGEDI was subsequently announced at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in 2002 as a Type II WSSD partnership initiative. Since that time and with the help of UNEP and other partners we have made good progress at the local and regional levels. Now in the third phase of development we are branching out to a stronger focus on the region and our ties globally and we are facing the same information, data and knowledge sharing challenges as everyone. To address this, the UAE in cooperation with our partners at UNEP, the European Environment Agency, and others is now convening an ‘Eye on Earth’ Global Summit to be held in Abu Dhabi on 15-17 November , 2010.
The Summit will bring together high-level policy-makers, decision-makers and technical specialists from the international community, as well as governmental and non-governmental sectors with the aim of setting in motion a global process that will:
- Strengthen, synergise, and extend a global process to provide quality and timely information for decision-making on a common framework
- Reinforce multilateral policies and institutional arrangements to interlink environmental and environment-related information systems and networks
- Support technical cooperation to accelerate the building of an integrated global environmental information infrastructure
- Accelerate capacity building and technology support programmes around the world to further close the gap between developed and developing nations
- Establish a global fund to support developing countries.
Eye on Earth Summit 2010
Date: 15-17 November 2010
Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE
For further information and registration go to: Eye on Earth
