Spaces

What is SPACES

SPACES is a coalition that believes in the central role of spatial intelligence in joint decision-making for nature, climate and sustainable development objectives.

What we do 

We aim to mobilize spatial intelligence to help achieve climate and nature goals, anchored in the broader framework of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, by working with governments, businesses, and experts worldwide. Our vision is that spatial intelligence that can aid decision-making for nature and climate becomes widely available and is used to meet commitments and targets, frame integrated strategies, and promote transparency and accountability.

Why act now

Our planet’s nature and climate crises are deeply intertwined. Agendas across multiple international frameworks are now starting to align, allowing for more strategic engagement and action across global goals. Article 5 of the Paris Agreement recognizes the role of conserved and sustainably managed forests as carbon sinks and reservoirs with potential non-carbon benefits associated. Meanwhile, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework recognizes that nature-based solutions and/or ecosystem-based approaches can help to minimize the impact of climate change on biodiversity (Target 8) and asks parties to ensure that all land and sea areas globally are under participatory integrated biodiversity-inclusive spatial planning and/or effective management processes (Target 1).

Nature, climate and spatial intelligence

To jointly achieve nature and climate goals, integrated spatial planning will need to give prominence to nature-based solutions, which can tackle climate change and other societal challenges by protecting, restoring or better managing our ecosystems. Nature-based solutions are critical for limiting global mean temperature rise to no more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, alongside rapid decarbonization of the global economy, and underpin many climate change adaptation efforts. To achieve their full potential to contribute to the mitigation and adaptation of climate change and to address other societal challenges, these solutions should be delivered at the right locations and in the right ways. Spatially explicit plans that achieve all important objectives and enable transparent assessment of trade-offs need to be developed through a rigorous, participative and transparent planning process, drawing on the best available tools and data.

Spatial intelligence can help countries to understand underlying problems in current land use, formulate objectives, develop alternative pathways, identify possible ways to predict impact, and monitor actual impact after implementation, assess the potential for nature-based solutions to address societal challenges, engage with stakeholders throughout the development of integrated spatial plans that jointly deliver on climate and nature objectives, and monitor the success of their implementation.

Spatial intelligence can help businesses to understand, manage and monitor their impacts and dependencies on climate and nature in specific locations across their operations, value chains and the surrounding landscapes and seascapes, as well as to plan for investments in nature.

Who we are

The 2022 scoping phase of SPACES was coordinated by the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and SYSTEMIQ, working with the UN Development Programme (UNDP), International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and International Institute for Sustainability (IIS) amongst other collaborators. We consulted widely on the needs and interests of countries and businesses on spatial intelligence for climate and nature, to inform and build the coalition and support private and public sector operationalisation. This scoping phase of SPACES was funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Bosch Foundation provided key seed funding to help initiate SPACES in its early days.