DestinE at COP29

Only two and a half years after the launch of the initiative, Destination Earth features for a second time at a Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting. The initiative of the European Union to create a digital replica of the Earth system was introduced in 2022 during COP27.

For COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, an event organised by Finland’s CSC IT Center for Science, the Nordic Cryosphere Digital Twin (NOCOS DT) and the Nordic Council of Ministers, invited Irina Sandu, Director for DestinE at ECMWFEuropean Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts More to speak on the innovative DestinE digital twins.

The conference held in the COP29 Nordic Pavillion will explore the power of global and local digital twin technologies to support cryosphere monitoring and climate change adaptation. Tero Alto, Programme Manager at CSC – IT Center for Science will moderate the session.

The fast-paced development of the DestinE initiative

On 10 November 2022, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for the Digital Age (DG CNECT) hosted an event at COP27 featuring the three entities entrusted to implement DestinE, ECMWFEuropean Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts More, the European Space Agency (ESA) and EUMETSAT, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites. Irina Sandu introduced the general principles of the digital twins and the digital twin engine, developed by ECMWFEuropean Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts More that at the time were only starting to be developed.

Today, the Destination Earth Platform is open to its first users and the Climate Change Adaptation Digital Twin (Climate DT) and the Weather-induced Extremes DT (Extremes DT) are a reality, producing already promising results.

CSC-IT Center for Science is leading a partnership developing the Climate DT through a contract procured by ECMWFEuropean Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts More. Last June, CSC hosted the DestinE launch event in the LUMIOne of the EuroHPC pre-exascale supercomputers, hosted and o More supercomputing center in Kaajani, Finland, in which the European Commission Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager rang the bell marking the launch of the ambitious initiative.

Want to learn more? Watch the event live on 16 November 2024 at 13:15 AZT (UTC+4  – 10:15 CET)