Liina Vaabel
Title: Between Orbit and Cloud: Governing the Environmental Commons of COPERNICUS Earth Observation Data
Supervisor: Dr. Vasilis Kostakis, Dr. Katerina Troullaki
Opponent: Dr. Peeter Vihma
Defense: 21 January 2026
Abstract: This thesis examines the sustainability and governance challenges of the Copernicus Earth Observation data ecosystem, which supports climate monitoring and numerous environmental and societal services yet increasingly faces sustainability pressures within its own operational system. It integrates three complementary theoretical frameworks: Space Sustainability and Governance, Life Cycle Thinking, and Commons theory through the Institutional Analysis and Development to identify key sustainability hotspots and analyse their governance. The analysis identifies two main hotspots. First, Low Earth Orbit, where Copernicus satellites operate, emerges as a finite common-pool resource that is increasingly congested due to the rapid expansion of large commercial constellations and the accumulation of space debris. Governance in this domain remains fragmented, relying largely on voluntary guidelines, weak enforcement mechanisms, and misaligned incentives between public programmes and private operators. Second, the thesis reveals a largely invisible sustainability hotspot associated with EO data infrastructures, including cloud computing, data replication, and processing, where energy use and emissions are substantial but poorly accounted for in current governance and sustainability assessments. Building on these findings, the thesis develops policy proposals aimed at strengthening governance across both orbital and terrestrial dimensions of the Copernicus system. While significant practical and political constraints limit their short-term implementation, these proposals aim to offer normative guidance for future space sustainability governance and policy discussions.
Keywords: Earth Observation (EO), Space Sustainability Policy, Copernicus Programme, Commons, Environmental Governance.
