At the COP29 side event, "Leonardo technologies and solutions for climate transition, territories and communities protection", the main theme was how the Group's technologies can be applied to combatting climate change, also through mitigation and adaptation initiatives, facilitating the transition to a low climate impact economy and the safety of cities and territories.

The event, held at the Italian Pavilion and chaired by Raffaella Luglini, Chief Sustainability Officer of Leonardo, saw the participation of Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, Tony Agotha, Special Envoy for Climate and Environment of Europe, Massimo Comparini, Managing Director of Leonardo’s Space Business Unit, Jenny Davis-Peccoud, partner at Bain & Company, Alessandro Guerri, Director General of European, International and Sustainable Finance Affairs of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, Roberta Laudazi, expert in sustainable finance at Cassa Depositi e Prestiti and Michele Pisante, Chairman of Bonifiche Ferraresi S.p.A., focusing on Africa activities.

The integrated solutions proposed by Leonardo are the essential premise for initiatives aimed at countering the effects of climate change and which are expressed in multiple aspects, such as precision agriculture, sustainable forest management, monitoring of soil impoverishment and water scarcity. The contribution offered by digitalisation is also fundamental: the collection and management of big data, increasingly analysed through artificial intelligence and supercomputing, allow for timely, increasingly accurate and concrete decisions to be made.

Among the examples of application of these technologies, the following were highlighted:

• The IRIDE project, a hybrid Earth observation constellation entirely built by Italian companies that includes different classes of satellites with sensors to monitor the Planet and provide services. It is a government project funded by the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), managed by ESA (European Space Agency) in collaboration with ASI (Italian Space Agency) and scheduled for completion by 2026.
• the MONRE project: co-financed by the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE), it involves the construction of a climate emergency center in Vietnam that will be implemented by e-GEOS (an ASI / Telespazio company) with local industrial partners. e-GEOS will develop a system capable of providing pre- and post-event information and analysis within a few hours.
• The CENTAUR project (Copernicus ENhanced Tools for Anticipative response to climate change in the Emergency and SecURity), coordinated by e-GEOS within the Horizon Europe program. The project focuses on two application areas: the first is related to the risks for the population, assets, and infrastructure following floods in urban environments. The second analyses the effects on water and food insecurity, with the aim of improving the technological background of security and emergency services to anticipate and assess crisis events.

In addition to these examples, there are further new environmental monitoring and protection missions that involve Leonardo, such as:

• ESA’s FLEX (Fluorescence Explorer) mission which, thanks to the FLORIS instrument, built by Leonardo, will be able to provide global maps of vegetation fluorescence, measure photosynthetic activity and vegetation health from space for the first time and provide data in the field of agriculture, contributing to crop management and food security and supporting the growing demand for food on a global scale.
• ESA’s BIOMASS mission, for which Leonardo and Thales Alenia Space are providing key technologies to produce a global map of the amount of carbon stored in the world’s forests, in order to reveal their state. The results of this research will also be crucial in achieving the United Nations’ goals in reducing deforestation emissions.

Find out more about Leonardo’s commitment to the safety of the Planet and its citizens in the report “Leonardo for Climate Action”