Representatives of four union members of the International Council for Science (ICSU) concerned with the earth sciences, the International Geographical Union (IGU), the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), the International Union of Geophysics and Geodesy (IUGG), and the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS), met February 6-7th, 2004 in Paris to review common and complementary interests. This gave rise to formation of the GeoUnions.

Later, the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, last year, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and this year the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) joined the GeoUnions successively, the number of members has increased to seven.