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The Economics of Space Sustainability

Delivering Economic Evidence to Guide Government Action

Earth's orbits are polluted by more than 100 million debris objects that pose a collision threat to satellites and other spacecraft. The risk of perturbing highly valuable space-based services critical to life on Earth, such as weather monitoring and disaster management, is making debris mitigation an urgent policy challenge. This book provides the latest findings from the OECD project on the economics of space sustainability, which aims to improve decision makers’ understanding of the societal value of space infrastructure and costs of space debris. It provides comprehensive evidence on the growth of space debris, presents methods to evaluate and quantify the value of the satellites at risk and discusses ways to ensure a more sustainable use of the orbital environment. It notably includes case studies from Italy, Japan and Korea on the socio-economic value of different types of space infrastructure and discusses the feasibility and optimal design of fiscal measures and voluntary environmental rating schemes to change operator behaviour. This work is informed by contributions from researchers worldwide involved in the OECD project.

Available from June 28, 2024

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword
Abbreviations and acronyms
Executive summary
Space sustainability at the OECD
Informing government action on space debris mitigation
Valuing the cost of space debris: the loss of Korean satellites in low-earth orbit
Space assets as critical infrastructure? The socio-economic value of space infrastructure in Japan
The socio-economic benefits of earth observation (EO): Insights from the end users of EO services and applications in Italy
Value mechanisms of satellite infrastructure in the “new space” economy
Use of fiscal measures for addressing space debris
Addressing earth-space sustainability: An incentive-based mechanism for satellite infrastructure under three scenarios by 2030
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