Global Public Goods: The Case for the Global Earth Observation System of Systems

Abstract

The debate surrounding the provision of welfare by state institutions has been widely discussed in the field of political economics since the 1930s. Related research also focuses on welfare supply at an international system level. This article assesses whether international cooperation in the area of sharing remote sensing data leads to the supply of global public goods, which to date has not yet been discussed in related scholarly literature. The supply of global public goods is assessed within the GEO international regime and leads to the use of the non-rivalrous GEOSS, which can be accessed by every socio-economic group in every UN member country including future generations. However, providing the benefit of GEOSS is not always favourable because of the low number of financially participating consumers.