São Paulo – Researchers, politicians and government officials will meet from December 12th to 15th in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to discuss ways of improving the access and sharing of environment-related information held by different countries or institutions. These pieces of information are crucial to elaborating policies and setting targets for greenhouse gas emission, residue disposal, deforestation control and even increasing food security by preventing drought and flood in farmable lands.
The meeting in Abu Dhabi will result in a document which will be presented and discussed at Rio+20, a summit of heads of state focusing on sustainable development due June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil will be represented at the event in Abu Dhabi by an official of the Ministry of Foreign Relations and researchers.
Speakers at the “Eye on Earth” summit whose presence has been confirmed include the former United States president Bill Clinton. The director of Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), Gilberto Câmara, will also speak at the event. The leader of Institute’s Geoprocessing Research and Development team, Câmara is one of the coordinators of Amazon deforestation surveys.
At the Abu Dhabi meeting, the researchers will discuss ways of ensuring full access to social and environmental information worldwide on disaster management, oceans, innovation in cities, water preservation, and information technology. As part of the debates, resaerchers in attendance will present experiences that have contributed to improve data collection.
Presently, access to much of the information is restricted, some does not comply with the standards for measurement, or still their existence is ignored by researchers. Participants in the summit will give presentations and meet in workgroups to suggest changes in order to reduce red tape in access to environmental information. The conclusions drawn at the “Eye on Earth” summit and the topics to be discussed at Rio+20 will be presented on the last day of the event.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
