THE BRIEF by Maya Plentz
Maya Plentz is the founder and chief editor of THE BRIEF, a weekly newsletter with exclusive interviews and analysis focusing on tech policy, and the global digital economy. She has over two decades of experience in the news media sector. Her work has aired at UN Radio, BBC World, RFI and Bloomberg TV.
During her tenure as a producer and presenter at Bloomberg TV in New York, she covered Google, Microsoft, and the 2000 dot-com boom. She also produced a daily segment on science, medicine, and technology.
At the UN News and Media Division in New York, she served as a broadcast producer and website news editor, conducting interviews with UN officials, government representatives, and diplomats. Her programs reached millions of viewers weekly across the globe, airing on UN national broadcast partners in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
As a member of the European Commission High-Level Group of Experts, under the leadership of Pascal Lamy, former WTO Director General and Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research and Innovation, she was tasked with reviewing the EU's research and innovation funding framework, Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. She provided advisory on communication strategies to promote innovation funding at the EU.
THE BRIEF by Maya Plentz
European Space Agency Director-General Josef Aschbacher
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Support the show & get subscriber-only content.Josef Aschbacher, European Space Agency Director-General, on COP28 and the Agreement With UNEP to Monitor Climate Change
Getting things done at COP28: Watch my interview with the European Space Agency Director-General Josef Aschbacher where we do a 360 degree on climate action and ESA
Interview with the ESA Director-General Josef Aschbacher
Space travel is the stuff of dreams for most of us. I have dreamed of space missions since I organized a press briefing at the engineering department of Florida International University, featuring a former NASA astronaut, Dr. Bernard Harris, who came to speak to young high-school students at FIU‘s Summer program, in 2007.
I was taking a break from journalism, but followed around Jose Pagliery, one of the reporters that attended the press briefing, who was then with the Miami Herald (now with The Daily Beast) as he interviewed Harris on what was like to see the Earth from space, wear a clunky space suit, and why younger generations should care.
While most of us will never circumvent the Earth from space, at least in these coming decades, we nevertheless use devices everyday and trust our weather forecasters with the recommendation of whether we should wear our rain boots over the weekend, using information that is gathered by satellites. About 80% of the information we rely on comes from space satellites, including ESA and other providers.
This week I interviewed the European Space Agency Director General, Josef Aschbacher, on his participation at COP28 and what is in store for 2024, from developing next generation satellites with Airbus to working with the United Nations Environment Program, to creating a coalition to address space debris when decommissioning satellites no longer operational, to pledging during COP28, alongside other heads of space agencies, to further support climate action.
It was the first time that a dedicated Space Pavilion was created at a COP and the panels and meetings centered and focused on how space research can promote further understanding of global warming.
Mr. Aschbacher is a scientist, and rose through the ranks at the European Space Agency, so knows the subject inside and out. We had a long conversation on the next generation of satellites, international cooperation, working alongside NASA and other space agencies, and how space technologies will help us better understand the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest ecosystem. These past days he has signed agreements to work with UNEP and the European Commission Directorate General for Climate Action, and is currently hammering out a program with the Brazilian Space Agency.
We also spoke about the number of satellites in orbit (a total of 8K of which 5K are from a private sector provider, Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite company) and how to manage this increasing number, and his invitation to Elon Musk, and other heads of space agencies, to join the coalition that will pledge to address debris and to decommission satellites in a manner that will avoid further polluting space, as we try to understand our planet, our galaxy, and beyond.
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