Direction de la Science, de la technologie et de l'innovation
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.