• Actors at the frontlines of climate change – namely, local governments and community organizations – require data from across traditional sectors such as water, energy, transportation, and agriculture They need data sharing options which are unencumbered by traditional organizational, national, and sectoral boundaries. 
• Data spaces can play this role in a few ways:
• • With proper governance mechanisms and standards in place, data spaces can facilitate decentralized data transfer, where data is shared through APIs that comply with set standards, without any central platform or data repository. This allows for any one data space to link to others that are focused on different sectors or geographic locations. This is critical within the context of climate, where the nature of the climate crisis means that relevant data is held by actors across sectors and borders. 
  • Similarly, in different markets, different actors hold data, which changes the necessary incentives for unlocking that data. For example, in the U.S., large corporations tend to hold most of the data. In Europe, on the other hand, there are many public and private sector actors that hold smaller amounts of data, and they are often encouraged through regulation to share it. In many countries in Africa, including Ivory Coast and Senegal, there are also many data holders across the public, private, and development sectors, each with their own siloed platforms. In each of these different contexts, data sharing requires a different mix of incentives, ranging from regulation to monetization to community improvement of data shared within the data space.
• While this model requires extensive up-front work to agree upon governance and technical standards, the result is an approach that overcomes trust and financing issues by maintaining data sovereignty and creating a marketplace for data exchange. By putting in the effort now to establish trust and determine common standards and practices, the actors driving data spaces are putting into place the necessary infrastructure for cross-border data sharing that can drive climate action.

• Sovereign data control: Data owners maintain control of their data and the conditions for data sharing – establishing rules about who can see their data, and for how long. This feature differentiates data spaces from data trusts – where data is pooled and held by the central governance body.
• Monetization: Each member can set their own monetization policies and fees (or choose to offer data for free), thereby creating a market for incentivized data sharing. 
• Centralized governance: Ideally, there is a neutral and trusted actor who enforces rules regarding membership, data quality, and community interaction.
• Decentralized data transfer: Data is shared through APIs that comply with set standards. There is no one central platform or data repository. This allows for federation, and presents the possibility of allowing one data space to link to others that are focused on different sectors or geographic locations.

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