Summit Agenda

Eye on Earth Summit Agenda

The Summit is split into three segments: Main Plenary, Open Sessions and Rio +20 sessions.

Main Plenary

The Main Plenary forms the backbone of the Summit and will deliver a progression of messages for the three and a half days. This includes:

Monday 12th December: Mind the Gap – Participate in exploring the most critical challenges, gaps and opportunities that need to be addressed for more effective environmental and societal information networking today.
Tuesday 13th December: From a Moment to a Movement – We emphasise the crucial importance of environmental information and networking and share success stories that can help strengthen global environmental policies.
Wednesday 14th December: Effecting Change – Today we bring the curriculum back to the ground to focus on key thematic areas, challenge conventional thinking and imagine possibilities for the future.
Thursday 15th December: Delivering the Vision – Summarising the conclusions of the Eye on Earth Summit and Special Initiatives, we will close the programme with specific commitments and way forward expectations.

All Summit invitees are welcomed to the Main Plenary.

Open Sessions

The Open Sessions, to be presented as four parallel tracks on Monday 12th December, will focus on the key issues, opportunities and challenges identified by the Eye on Earth Summit Working Groups as they relate to environmental and societal data and information networking. The tracks will be organized around the themes of the Working Groups (Policy, Governance and Institutional Networking; Content and User Needs; Technical Infrastructure; and Capacity Building, Education and Awareness Building) and present the audience with the main findings using a mix of theme focused and cross-cutting presentations, panels, debates, applications and multimedia. These Sessions will provide the audience an opportunity to join the dialogue with global experts on pressing matters related to themes that best align with their mandate to collectively interact and better inform the way forward.

Rio +20 sessions

The Rio +20 Sessions will involve senior officials, including Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Directors who will convene to form a panel discussion surrounding the role of environmental information to support decision-making. This will consist of negotiations by Government delegations on Monday 12th December, and final agreements by Ministers on Wednesday 14th December. The Rio +20 Sessions will be concluded with the Eye on Earth Declaration to be announced on Thursday 15th December.

The Summit programme will include a diverse mix of components, designed to provoke, inform and inspire positive action. To ensure a programme that is as relevant and impactful as possible, the Eye on Earth Summit agenda and schedule are being developed with the aid of a system of Summit Governance representing all aspects of the global environmental and social data movements.

The Summit will provide input to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development to be held in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

Finally, the Summit will be preceded by a United Nations Major Groups and Stakeholders consultation.

Channelling civil society input into the Summit and the way forward

The purpose of the CSF is to provide an opportunity for up to 150 Civil Society representatives representing all Major Groups and regions to prepare and consolidate their inputs into the summit, to promote the international agenda for improved access and ability to use and leverage environmental data and information for the benefit of all communities of our global society.

The Forum is expected to solicit inputs of civil society in addressing the overall expected result of the Summit, and to help create a consensus on key areas of access to environmental and societal information, as well as to collaborate towards strengthening existing initiatives and filling gaps towards more informed policy making and a sustainable future.

Participants to the Civil Society Forum will also participate in the Eye on Earth Summit.