The UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development sets 17 Goals to be reached by 2030 including to "ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all". In line with the pursuit of this goal, onshore wind is an expanding source of energy in the European Union.

With its full, free and open data policy, Copernicus is a global game-changer in Earth Observation and is supporting a stronger Europe. Since 2014, the Copernicus ecosystem has displayed an annual growth of 17% and the number of users has doubled every year, currently reaching over 150,000. During the period 2017 – 2035, Copernicus is expected to generate €67 to €131 billion in benefits to the European society, which is 10 to 20 times the cost of the programme.

In a move that could benefit around 22 million farmers, the EU's Common Agricultural Policy has entered the space age. Offering detailed and timely information on crops and farmland, the Copernicus Sentinels are now being used to simplify and modernise this longest-serving EU policy.

With the launch of Sentinel-3B, the first set of Sentinels for Copernicus is now in orbit delivering an almost mind-boggling amount of data. While this wealth of information advances environmental monitoring, it also opens up huge business opportunities. To help bring these data to market, ESA and SAP have joined forces to create the World Space Alliance.

After two years of intensive brainstorming and talks, Copernicus EMS and International Charter agreed how to join forces to better understand and manage the impact of emergencies and large disasters.

China and Finland have signed an agreement to establish a joint research center for Arctic space observation and data sharing services, the China Academy of Sciences (CAS) announced.

On 10 April 2018, the European Commission launched the Innovation Radar – a data-driven online tool to help match innovators with those who can help get their innovations to market.

Scepter Inc., a Silicon Valley startup, unveiled plans 22 March to launch a constellation of satellites to provide global atmospheric monitoring services for government and commercial customers.

ESA's former Earth Science Advisory Committee has been changed, in name and in fact. Now called the Advisory Committee for Earth Observation, it is the senior advisory body to the Director of Earth Observation Programmes, acting as the Director General's representative, on all matters concerning Earth sciences included in ESA's Earth observation science programme.

According to this year's Global Risk Report by the World Economic Forum, water crises are one of the five biggest risks to society. ESA is working with development banks to help water-resource authorities use information from satellites to manage this precious resource.

The Polish Space Agency (POLSA) is currently consulting on its draft National Space Program under which it aims to spend close to 1.43 billion Polish zloty ($420 million) over an eight-year period. Senior agency officials say the program will allow them to team up Polish space industry players with foreign partners to develop two new satellites and acquire developed technologies.

On 03 March 2018, on the occasion of the International Space Exploration Forum (ISEF2), JAXA and ESA held an Inter-Agency Meeting to discuss furthering their bilaterall cooperation. In the meeting JAXA and ESA announced a joint statement concerning the results of the studies of the Joint Working Groups established last May and future collaboration between the two agencies.

NASA and the non-profit Conservation International are partnering to use global Earth observations from space to improve regional efforts that assess natural resources for conservation and sustainable management.

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) signed a £25M contract in Beijing yesterday with Twenty First Century Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd (21AT) to provide data from a new Earth Observation satellite (SSTL-S1) due for launch on PSLV in the middle of this year.

On 24 January 2018, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) met to exchange their views on space exploration. The agencies signed a joint statement affirming their strong mutual interest in continued future cooperation in space exploration.

Shortly after a Finnish company successfully launched the country's first commercial SAR micro-satellite, Finland's President Sauli Niinistö signed the country's first comprehensive space legislation.

On 09 January in Beijing, in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron and Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China, CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall signed a memorandum of understanding on climate actions and space exploration with Wu Yanhua, Acting Administrator of the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

Improving weather forecasts, predicting sea-level rise, and understanding ecosystem change top a new list of priorities for future US Earth-observing satellites.

Swedish space company ÅAC Microtec announced on 22 Dec. it plans to acquire Scottish cubesat manufacturer Clyde Space, creating what the companies believe will be a dominant force in a growing sector of the industry.

At an event held on 13 December at ESA's Headquarters in Paris, France, an Understanding for the Sentinel Collaborative Ground Segment Cooperation was signed to facilitate Sentinel data exploitation in Romania.