United nation activities #37

Abstract

This chapter addresses the several actions that the United Nations has undertaken to address various types of natural and anthropogenic origin cosmic hazards. The primary organizational units that address these issues within the United Nations are the General Assembly; the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and its Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, Action Team on Near-Earth Objects (Action Team 14); and, in parallel, the Group of Governmental Experts on Transparency and Confidence-Building Measures in Outer Space Activities established by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. In the past decade significant progress has been made by the United Nations in addressing these issues. In 2007 COPUOS agreed on the Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. In December of that year, the guidelines were endorsed by the General Assembly in its resolution 62/217 (General Assembly, Official Records Sixty-second session, 2007, Supplement No. 20 (A/62/20) Annex ‘Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space’. Last accessed Oct 2014). This COPUOS action (i.e., to adopt these voluntary guidelines) is significantly based on the coordinated action that came out of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC). The IADC is an international forum of governmental bodies for the coordination of activities related to the issues of man-made and natural debris in space. The primary purpose of the IADC is to exchange information on space debris research activities between member space agencies, to facilitate opportunities for cooperation in space debris research, to review the progress of ongoing cooperative activities, and to identify debris mitigation options. The IADC adopted its first set of Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines in 2002 and revised them in 2007 (IADC (2007) IADC space debris mitigation guidelines. http://www.iadc-online.org/index.cgi?item=docs_pub. Last accessed Oct 2014). The IADC mitigation guidelines is a living document and may be updated as new information becomes available regarding space activities and their influence on the space environment. In February of 2010, COPUOS, through its Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, established a working group on the Long-term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities (LTSSA) that is working on another set of draft guidelines to preserve the use of space in the long term. The draft guidelines address four thematic areas: (a) sustainable space utilization supporting sustainable development on Earth; (b) space debris, space operations, and tools to support collaborative space situational awareness; (c) space weather; (d) and regulatory regimes and guidance for actors in the space arena. These activities by COPUOS are addressed in this chapter along with its many significant actions related to near-Earth objects. Recommendations concerning the international response to an asteroid impact threat, now approved by the UN General Assembly as of December 2013, have largely derived from the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III Follow Up Action Teams. http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/unisp-3/followup/teams_contact_list.html#recomm14 Last accessed Oct 2014) held in July 1999 in Vienna, Austria. The Action Team 14 that was formed in 2001 and charged with the follow-up to recommendation 14 from this major conference recommended the new international processes to provide global warning and responsive actions now being implemented. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) also has concerns related to extreme solar weather and orbital debris, but these are not prime functions and ITU representatives to COPUOS provide a coordinative point of contact. This chapter not only addresses the history of United Nations actions in the three major cosmic hazards areas but also reports on continuing actions and likely trends for the future.