15 December 2011: The Eye on Earth Summit, hosted by the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD), in partnership with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), concluded with the launch of eight “Special Initiatives.” Among the initiatives, three are “foundation” (cross-cutting) and five are thematic, and several are climate-related.

The Summit took place from 12-15 December 2011, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Of the three cross-cutting initiatives, the Eye on Global Network of Networks seeks to increase the collective impact of existing geospatial and other data networks on global decision making by ensuring that they can find and talk to one another. The Eye on Environmental Education Initiative seeks to create a global network that will support coordination, collaboration and resource-sharing among environmental educators around the world. The Eye on Access for All Initiative seeks to create an enabling environment that ensures maximum usage of available environmental and societal data and information by all who wish to access it.

Of the thematic initiatives, three are explicitly or implicitly linked to climate change. Eye on Oceans and Blue Carbon will seek to map marine ecosystems, measure their ability to capture carbon, refine the standards and methodologies for the Blue Carbon Framework model, develop it for the necessary information infrastructure and support coastal blue carbon initiatives. It will implement a programme in at least one region to use as a model for others.

Eye on Disaster Management will encourage international finance and aid agencies to combine private sector technology and expertise with existing governmental and intergovernmental programmes, and boost links between existing disaster reduction and recovery information networks, with a view to help parties engaged in disaster planning and response and/or helping communities adapt to climate change. A particular focus will be on helping the world’s 20 poorest countries.

Eye on Community Sustainability and Resiliency seeks to create a forum for exchange about urban sustainability and resiliency (including climate resiliency) initiatives, including green building and design, by linking up several existing networks such as My Community Our Earth (MyCOE), Geoinformation for Sustainable Urban Management (GeoSUM), and Geospatial Sciences for Sustainable Development in Africa. [IISD RS Summary of Eye on Earth Summit]