Understanding the subsurface is vital to achieve the Green Transition

Brussels, 20 November 2023
EuroGeoSurveys launches a new strategy: Understanding the subsurface is vital to achieve the Green Transition

This week, EuroGeoSurveys launched an ambitious new four-year strategy (2023-2027) to support implementation of the European Green Deal. The new mission of EuroGeoSurveys is "to enable sustainable and responsible use of the Earth's subsurface environment and resources" with the vision of "creating the Geological Service for Europe as the scientific reference partner of the EU, delivering knowledge of the Earth's subsurface environment and resources as the foundation of a sustainable future for Europe."

With sustainability at its heart, the new strategy lays our four scientific thematic goals that will be the focus of the work of their pan-European expert network of thousands of geoscientists:
• Resourcing Europe: Supporting the sustainable use and management of natural and strategic resources.
• Energy Transition: Supporting the clean energy transition and the battle against climate change.
• Safety, Security, Wellbeing: Supporting adaptation to and mitigation of climate change, hazards, and water
and soil pollution.
• Digital Twin: Enabling the digital transition and supporting open science.

Already one year into its flagship Geological Service for Europe (GSEU) project*, EuroGeoSurveys is already on a path toward a Geological Service for Europe. GSEU delivers pan-European harmonized subsurface data on critical minerals,
groundwater, geo-energy potential, coastal zone vulnerability and wind farm siting, developing the geoscientific framework for harmonized maps and models, and further developing the European Geological Data Infrastructure - an open platform delivering data, information, and knowledge of the European subsurface to inform EU policy.

In launching its strategy, EuroGeoSurveys seeks support from its wide network of stakeholders to establish a legal basis for the Geological Service for Europe and to promote their Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda that will address the four scientific thematic goals. The organization also aims to build engagement to deliver their science for policy, to expand their network, and to raise awareness of the importance of sustainable and responsible use of the Earth's subsurface.

Asked about the new strategy, EuroGeoSurveys President Mr Christophe Poinssot said, "The Earth is not just rocks and minerals. It's the water within the rocks - groundwater that is the main source of our drinking water and an important source of water for our agricultural crops. It's geothermal energy - the heat stored within the rocks. It's the soils we use to grow our food, the subsurface pore space where we will store carbon dioxide, or hydrogen fuel. The expert knowledge of our EuroGeoSurveys community in all of these areas, and others, is crucial to achieving the goals of the Green Deal and reaching net zero by 2050. Our new strategy will help us to deliver."

EuroGeoSurveys (est. 1971) is a not-for-profit organization representing 37 geological survey organisations of Europe, with a geoscientific expert network of several thousand. Founded in the work of 10 expert groups and two task forces, EuroGeoSurveys coordinates the network of the Geological Surveys of Europe, jointly addressing European issues in the field of geoscience and collaborating on projects that inform EU and national policy for the benefit of all European
citizens.
*Funded by the European Union

EuroGeoSurveys Secretariat. Rue Joseph II, 36-38 b.7, 1000 Brussels, Belgium |

What is EGS?
A Geological Service for Europe. EuroGeoSurveys is a not-for-profit organisation representing the Geological Surveys of Europe. Through the collaborative research and activities of our Expert Groups and Task Forces, and provision of open-access, harmonised geological maps, data, and data infrastructure, we provide the European Institutions, regulators, industry, and the public, with expert, balanced and practical pan-European geoscience data and advice to guide policy and to address key societal challenges.

This release was published on openPR.