ESA Space Economy – Partnering with the OECD to develop international best practices [Jul/2024]
For the past ten years, the
European Space Agency, with several other space agencies, has been cooperating
with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), through
the work of the OECD
Space Forum.
The OECD Space Forum is an
international platform that brings together stakeholders from the global space
community to exchange on economic issues related to space activities. Within
the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, the Space Forum
aims to improve measurement of the space economy and its broader impacts and
provides a unique setting for research and discussions on the space economy.
The work of the OECD Space Forum,
with the continuous support and inputs provided by its Steering Group members,
has led to the publication of several key reports, considered as international
references in the research around measuring the space economy, such as:
- The OECD Handbook on Measuring the Space
Economy first
and second
editions.
- The OECD publications on the Economics of
Space Sustainability, related specifically to space debris, which look at assessing
the potential costs of space debris incidents, estimating the value of space
infrastructure and comparing the economic effects of different policy options (see
latest available information here).
The OECD Space Forum also
initiated a key topic of research around the use of official statistics to
measure the space sector and the development of thematic account for space
(previously called “satellite account”). A first successful space
economy thematic account has been developed in the United States, by the US
Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA, responsible for the computation of US Gross
Domestic Product). With the support of the OECD and the US BEA, ESA launched a
first of its kind cooperation project with Eurostat and the European Commission
Joint Research Centre (JRC) to investigate the development of a European space
economy thematic account (link to Eurostat/JRC Partnership page).
ESA Space Economy team
cooperation with the OECD is an essential and unique partnership to foster the
development of common frameworks, definitions, and best practices on the space
economy related research and analysis.
To know more about the work of
ESA Space Economy team partnership with the OECD, please do not hesitate to contact us!