Following the success of the 2011 inaugural Summit, Eye on Earth (EoE) Summit 2015 will be held in Abu Dhabi from today. It will run until October 8. It is expected to attract around 650 leaders, scientists and scholars from all over the world and from different backgrounds such as governmental organisations, UN bodies, civil society and non-governmental organisations, academic institutions and private sections.

The upcoming EoE summit will include 30 sessions which will discuss various environmental issues. The main goal of the summit will be to work collaboratively among different stakeholders to fill the data gap and knowledge in order to help decision-makers to draw policies and strategies for a sustainable future.

There is a general lack of coherent environmental information globally and regionally. There is also poor exchange of such information and cooperation between institutions in the same country and between countries. As such, there is an urgent need to collect, process, analyse and disseminate environmental information in a systematic manner.

Drawing up sustainable development policies and strategies as well as enacting legislation requires reliable data, whether economic, social or environmental. After that, various stakeholders such as the public, private sector and civil society organisations and the public in general need information about such policies and plans.

These stakeholders also need to know what the benefit from such policies and legislation is. Even evaluating the success of the policies and legislation requires information. So, information is vital at all stages for better governance. In fact, free dissemination of environmental information is a key enabling condition for better environmental governance globally, regionally and locally.

The summit and its goals are in line with the Principle “10” on access to information of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, which among others recognises that “each individual shall have appropriate access to information concerning the environment that is held by public authorities, and that states shall facilitate and encourage public awareness and participation by making information widely available”.

The summit is not just about data, but also about the means to get the necessary information and knowledge to address global environmental challenges in various areas such as water, climate change, biodiversity (terrestrial and marine), waste, land, chemicals management and so on. Many can realise that data is out there everywhere, but not everyone has access to it, not everyone can access them at the right time and not everyone can interpret them correctly.

Crucial timing

In fact, one can say that the summit timing is very crucial in 2015 with many important events and milestones globally in the environment and development arena. For instance, the summit is to be held just a few days after the nations agreed on post 2015 agenda and the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These new SDGs will set the development agenda for our planet in the next 15 years till 2030 which cannot be realised unless we have the correct data and information at the right time and scale. Without reliable data, wrong paths to development can be chosen. Humanity no longer has the luxury of time to try to correct our wrong development actions. Remedial measures need to be taken right now. Such measures depend mainly on accurate data.

The EoE summit is considered a very important event to discuss various global environmental issues, which is important for the Gulf Cooperation Council countries as well. There are several sessions will be held that will move the GCC countries forward to a sustainable future. The GCC countries are facing crucial environmental issues that could reflect on the economic stability, and the social life. One of the important sessions that will be held in the EoE Summit 2015, for instance, “Decision-making in Water Security, Community Strategy for Success”.

The EoE 2015 will help GCC countries to exchange experience, knowledge, and have access to the data that will assist in moving forward to better and sustainable water management.

Also, there is another significant session on “Education for Sustaining the Planet”; this session aims to highlight the importance of educating about sustainable development. In fact, educating about sustainable development will help in raising awareness among population in the GCC countries about this key concept and importance to change towards a sustainable life style and sustainable consumption and production.

Last but not least, it is worth mentioning that the inaugural summit in 2011 kicked off many ongoing initiatives such as Eye on Earth Community and Eye on Oceans and Blue Carbon. In short, these initiatives and the 2015 summit are helping in filling data gaps towards better policy-making that supports sustainable future. That proves Abu Dhabi and the UAE lead the way in the sustainable development fields and the country is playing a key partner in Post 2015 Agenda.

Dr Mohamed Abdel Raouf is an independent environmental researcher.