Copernicus will generate an economic value far beyond total investments
The European Commission recently completed a large-scale study which examined the overall impact of the Copernicus programme on the European economy and its benefits for the space industry, the downstream sector and end-users. The results of this exercise are published today in the first Copernicus Market Report.
Building on the outcomes of previous studies and on interviews with more than 140 people representing institutional stakeholders as well as the private sector, from micro to large companies, the Market Report quantifies the benefits generated by Copernicus and shows that a Copernicus-enabled ecosystem is emerging.
Benefits are already there
The study started in 2015, only one year after the beginning of operation of Sentinel-1A, the first satellite fully dedicated to the Copernicus programme and launched on 3 April 2014.
In spite of this short lapse of time, the study shows the first positive impacts of the availability of Copernicus data on free, full and open basis: Copernicus data and services are already enabling 10% of the revenues of Earth Observation service suppliers in Europe. And these benefits are expected to grow at an impressive 31% per year.
Benefits are sizeable
The report demonstrates that the Copernicus programme significantly boosted the European space sector, through investments in the Sentinels Satellites and the Copernicus services.
It also shows that the availability of free Copernicus data and services has enabled the development of many commercial applications, which benefited both the service suppliers and the end users. The Market Report presents in details the impact of Copernicus on eight key sectors (agriculture, forestry, urban monitoring, insurance, ocean monitoring, oil & gas, renewable energies and air quality management).
The study concludes that the cumulated impact during the period 2008 – 2020 is significantly above the overall investment in the programme, with a cumulated economic value estimated at EUR 13.5 billion while total investments are forecasted to reach EUR 7.4 billion.
Click here to download the full report.
