GEO – the Group on Earth Observations was formally established in 2005 in Brussels at the Third Earth Observation Summit, where the first 10-year Implementation Plan was adopted. Since its inception and over the past 20 years GEO has evolved from coordinating data sharing to championing Earth Intelligence, ensuring that Earth observations are not only accessible, but also transformed into actionable knowledge.
The overall goal of the Project has been to support the organization of the “GEO Global Forum 2025: the Earth talks”, a cornerstone to shape the next 10 years of GEO action, through the achievement of three major objectives:
• The launch of a dynamic platform for advancing Earth Intelligence for all.
• The celebration of the GEO's 20th anniversary, marking two decades of multilateral collaboration, innovation, and impact.
• The adoption of the Post-2025 GEO Work Programme designed to deliver the ambitious goals of GEO’s Post-2025 Strategy.
The GEO Global Forum 2025 marked also a clear change on how to foresee the Ministerial participation: rather than a separate Ministerial Summit (customary for previous, similar GEO occasions) a Ministerial Segment has been included in the GEO Plenary.
The main motivation of the Project has been to bring back to Europe the GEO event at Ministerial level at the 20th Anniversary of GEO by making available a venue and the best conditions to promote exchange, discussions and, finally, commitments in support of GEO activities. From the Project’s perspective the ultimate metrics to assess success is therefore the number of participants and the number of Ministers and High-level representatives attending the Forum.
The GEO Global Forum 2025 took place from 5 to 9 May, organized by the Italian Space Agency, with the substantial support of the European Commission through the funding of this Project, under the auspices of the Italian Ministries of University and Research and Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and brought together Ministers, Industry leaders, innovators and young people from around the world to agree on a common roadmap for implementing GEO's Post-2025 Strategy.
The Forum was articulated in a number of activities/events, as summarized in Fig. 1.
The detailed Programme can be found at
https://earthobservations.org/about-us/events/geo-global-forum-2025(opens in new window)
