August 29, 2018

State Visit of President Macron to Kingdom of Denmark, CNES and DAFSHE join forces to tackle climate change and develop innovative space applications

Wednesday 29 August in Copenhagen, on the occasion of President Macron’s State Visit to the Kingdom of Denmark, CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall and Hans Müller Pedersen, Director General of the Danish Agency For Science and Higher Education (DAFSHE), signed a letter of intent reaffirming the key role of satellites in tackling climate change and committing to combine their efforts to develop innovative space applications.

For climate monitoring, the letter of intent aims to achieve closer cooperation in Earth observation between CNES and DAFSHE in order to step up the role of space missions studying climate change, as set out by the world’s space agencies at the COP21 conference through the Mexico and New Delhi Declarations. It also aims to promote international cooperation in this field through the Space Climate Observatory (SCO) initiated at the One Planet Summit. With regard to innovation, France and Denmark are seeking to work more closely together on developing disruptive space technologies and on long-term areas of investigation with stakeholders from within and outside the space sector.

The French and Danish scientific communities have a long history of cooperation, notably in the field of Earth observation with the Danish Oersted satellite. The two nations are also working together in space within the framework of ESA and the programmes of the European Union.

After the signature, Jean-Yves Le Gall commented: “International cooperation is a key element of our success and this letter of intent will enable France and Denmark to work more closely together in the crucial areas of climate change and innovation. It puts on a formal footing our joint desire to step up our cooperation for the benefit of our citizens.”

CONTACTS
Pascale Bresson           Press Officer    Tel: +33 (0)1 44 76 75 39    pascale.bresson@cnes.fr
Raphaël Sart                 Press Officer    Tel: +33 (0)1 44 76 74 51    raphael.sart@cnes.fr
Sébastien Martignac    Press Officer    Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 78 35    sebastien.martignac@cnes.fr