In the coming years, as the effects of climate change continue to worsen across the world, the financial impact will be immense. A recent study projects the global cost of climate-related damage could reach as high as $38 trillion per year by 2049, with lower-income countries bearing a disproportionately higher burden than high-income ones. Yet even these estimates may understate the multiplier effect of climate change, which impacts broader indicators of well-being and prosperity for people and the planet. As climate needs escalate and many countries face domestic financial constraints, innovative, resilient financing solutions are essential to meet the scale of the challenge.
Recognizing these needs, the upcoming 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) in Azerbaijan will center on establishing the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) for climate finance. This year’s “finance COP,” as it has been dubbed, will aim to mobilize capital, expand contributions to the loss and damage fund, and accelerate adaptation efforts.
To further these goals, the global community is increasingly exploring digital and data technologies as powerful tools for cost-saving and efficiency. Data sharing technologies present a compelling cost-benefit incentive for scaling climate solutions and supporting resilient, sustainable actions on a global scale. Open data has been long recognized as one preferred way to tackle known barriers to effective climate action because it has consistently delivered advantages where other models have faced limitations.
This spotlight builds on insights from three other papers in this series – data trusts, open transaction networks, and data spaces. In this paper, we examine the open data model through the lens of the three other frameworks, highlighting lessons that open data can lean on to optimize its impact on climate action.
Research series
This is the fourth paper in the series of the Joint Learning Network on Unlocking Data for Climate Action (Climate Data JLN), which was launched under the ITU’s multistakeholder Green Digital Action initiative.
The Climate Data JLN brings together experts in climate action, data sharing, and digital public infrastructure to explore new models for data sharing to help frontline actors, namely city governments in low-resourced countries, address people’s urgent needs and build resiliency in the face of this global crisis.
