Publication
Outer space sustainability is rapidly becoming a major focal area in global politics. Amidst governance challenges ranging from orbital debris over atmospheric pollution up to space resource exploration, policymakers, academics, industry, and civil society organizations are grappling with the question of how to balance the benefits of intensifying space activities with their sustainability impacts on Earth and in space. The urgency of identifying workable solutions reflects itself in the increasing number of high-level space sustainability events, with the biennial ESA Space Debris Conference, the 7th Summit for Space Sustainability, and other major conferences taking place in 2025 alone. Against the background of these wider discussions among diverse stakeholders, the Secure World Foundation, the EPFL Space Center, the EU COST network FOGOS, and the ERC project PlanetStewards organized a two-day workshop on space sustainability in partnership with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. This workshop sought to connect various ongoing initiatives and perspectives in the field of space sustainability, focusing on critical challenges of space as a finite resource, through a multi-stakeholder approach. On 27-28 March 2025, 54 experts, policymakers, and scientists conducted a comprehensive analysis of gaps, synergies, and inconsistencies in space sustainability.
Workshop participants parsed the broader space governance landscape, identifying strengths and weaknesses among the numerous national, international, and transnational governance arrangements addressing issues of equity, security, and environmental integrity in outer space. Participants also assessed existing governance capacities to identify blind spots and potential avenues for further collaboration. Seeking to bridge theoretical analyses and practical implementation, the workshop brought together a diverse group of stakeholders to identify future directions for space governance and capacity-building.