R1: Review

How do we help consumers, corporations, and governments make better data-driven decisions regarding climate and sustainability?

Climate change is the greatest challenge of our time, and at Amasia, we believe that behavior change at scale is one of the most powerful ways to bend the emissions curve downward. This belief informs our four investment pillars, which we call the 4 Rs of behavior change: Review, Renew, Rethink and Rebuild. Each represents an area where behavior change is necessary to tackle climate change.

We’ve previously tackled reducing the emissions of the built environment in our R3 blog post and shifting from linear to circular consumption in our R2 one. And in our latest post on R4, we spoke about simplifying supply chains to reduce their environmental impact.

Our last R of the series is R1, or Review: How do we help consumers, corporations, and governments make better data-driven decisions regarding climate and sustainability? In other words, how do we improve access to accurate and comprehensive environmental data?

What is climate data and why is it important?

Data is the “lifeblood of decision-making”, and climate data is especially vital in empowering multiple stakeholders to make climate-conscious decisions in the context of climate change.

The definition of ‘climate data’ is broad and multifaceted — it includes not only data related to the Earth’s climate system, but also how this data relates to human societies and natural ecosystems.

Examples of climate data include greenhouse gas (GHG) data, air and water pollution data, ecological data (e.g. data on biodiversity and the health of natural habitats), climate risk data, and so on — and anything else that could give us valuable information on the environmental impacts of human activities.

The uses for climate data are plenty. They include, but are not limited to:

1. Prioritizing the best paths to net zero

Climate data, such as those on clean energy and emissions abatement potential, cost, and maturity, can help businesses, NGOs, and governments prioritize the best paths to net zero among hundreds of alternatives.

2. Supporting evidence-based policymaking, planning, and management

Governments need accurate climate data to enact comprehensive and effective climate policies — data informs national development plans that improve societal welfare and safeguard the environment.

Additionally, data allows governments to roll out much-needed initiatives for conserving and protecting land rights, and design and prioritize the most impactful responses to climate risk and environmental degradation.

3. Informing and accelerating climate investments

Trillions of dollars of investment are needed to meet the goal of the Paris Agreement to halt global warming. It is crucial for an array of sectors to receive funding, including clean energy, zero-carbon transport, sustainable agriculture, and so on.

Data on climate impact and the efficacy of new and existing technologies will help direct capital rapidly and efficiently to where it is needed most, and where most impact can be made.

4. Mitigating against climate hazards

Both private and public sector decision-makers need accessible, credible and relevant climate information to increase resilience to the more intense and frequent extreme weather events that climate change will cause.

5. Improving consumer decision-making

Driving more environmentally-conscious consumption and behavioral decisions is key to a low-carbon future — 72% of all GHG emissions can be traced back to end-consumer behavior, with the richest 10% responsible for almost half of the world’s emissions.

There is much potential for consumption decisions to be influenced by relevant data. For instance, a study on food purchasing behavior suggests that information can be a powerful behavior change technique if tailored to customers' full shopping journey.

Fig. 1: Average Estimated Annual Climate Investments Needed Through 2050 to Maintain 1.5ºC Pathway; Source: Climate Policy Initiative

Incomplete and inaccurate data prevent us from making climate-smart decisions

While data quality is quickly improving, it is not yet comprehensive or consistent. There is a deficit of high quality, reliable, and comparable climate data out there, and this is preventing us from making the decisions necessary to achieve net zero emissions.

Lack of data availability

Governments and organizations face a shortage of climate data, and struggle to accurately track specific environmental indicators and progress towards sustainability goals.

For instance, across the 90 environmental indicators and the 193 UN countries, only 59% of data points are covered in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Database. This makes it difficult for countries to adjust action and policy to combat climate change, including enabling the critical transition to clean energy. Adaptation efforts, in particular, require local data that is often unavailable or insufficient.

The private sector’s goal tracking efforts and related decision-making are also negatively impacted by the lack of data. A recent global survey of financial firm executives by the Institute of International Finance and Deloitte found that only 5% of 130 surveyed firms think the data they use to measure, track, and achieve their net zero objective is fully accurate or complete.

And while consumer commitment to sustainability has intensified, consumers don't feel they have sufficient information to make informed choices.

The lack of quality climate data hinders the public and private sectors’ ability to accurately predict the impacts of climate change. Of course, we must note that data availability is only helpful if combined with data accuracy and reliability.

Lack of data accessibility

When the requisite data does exist, it is not always accessible by everyone that needs it. Data is often collected by different types of users for different purposes, and scattered across multiple platforms with varying standards. Data is also fragmented across thousands of silos and schemas, and across a multitude of databases. This makes it difficult to discover and use this data for real-world applications.

Apart from being dispersed and fragmented, data is sometimes also paywalled. The public and many institutions are therefore unable to access climate data because of the need to pay commercial subscription or platform fees; data is additionally often presented in proprietary formats that makes it difficult to comprehend, aggregate or compare information.

Other issues include data privacy and security, data interpretation and standardization, data preservation, and so forth. While these similarly present much room for improvement, our focus for R1 is on data availability and accessibility.

Fig. 2: Overview Map of 80+ Climate Data Platforms Across 7 Categories (Each Dot Represents a Platform); Source: Climate Works and World Resources Institute

Climate intelligence companies can drive better decision-making

In response to the growing demand for accurate, accessible environmental information, the number of organizations providing climate data and related services is proliferating, as is the number of products they offer. This is a welcome development: software companies are key players in helping to improve data availability, accessibility, standardization, interpretation, and management for public and private use cases.

While many climate data companies focus on carbon, we are especially mindful that fixating on this environmental metric alone — also known as having “carbon tunnel vision” — does not facilitate comprehensive climate action. Climate change and its effects extend far beyond carbon emissions — which is why, apart from carbon accounting companies, we are also interested in companies improving availability and access to other forms of environmental data. This includes data on GHGs, air and water pollution, waste, and other ecological indicators such as biodiversity, among others.

Additionally, we are interested in other forms of information that can assist in climate-related decision-making — this includes, for instance, data that can help accelerate the clean energy transition. Sectors in this space include smart grid tech, energy storage, microgrids, grid orchestration, and energy asset management.

Some of our R1 companies

Our R1 portfolio companies unlock key environmental data for businesses, governments and individuals used for daily decision-making.

Commons’ app’s research-backed algorithms remove barriers to climate action by connecting users’ spending and carbon footprint. Users gain insight into how their expenditure and lifestyle habits determine their carbon footprint, and through the app, gain opportunities to connect with like-minded individuals and learn how to live and spend more sustainably. Users can also offset their emissions with Commons’ carefully chosen carbon-offsetting partners.

Clarity’s integrated platform expands access to reliable environmental monitoring at scale to countless governments and businesses. Users can track exposure, identify air pollution hotspots, evaluate the success of environmental policies, and make informed decisions around meaningful climate action.

Clarity is a prime example of why we must expand our focus to include non-carbon environmental data: research has demonstrated a synergistic relationship between air pollution reduction and climate change mitigation. Poor air quality and climate change share many of the same causes — a simple example is the burning of fossil fuels driving both air pollution and global warming — and air pollutants can further accelerate climate change. This commonality in cause means that many of the same avenues can be used to both improve air quality and mitigate climate change.

Fig. 3: The Denver Department of Public Health and Environment (DDPHE) Using Clarity’s Air Quality Monitors to Measure Air Pollution; Source: Clarity

Conclusion

As Robert Muggah and Carlo Ratti write, “We cannot manage the climate crisis until we measure it, and we cannot measure it until we can collect and analyze the right information.”

The good news is that many aspects of climate change are measurable, and we are taking steps in the right direction in empowering multiple stakeholders, including ordinary citizens, with information on how we can collectively scale back on causing environmental harm.

Of course, more data is not a panacea for environmental challenges. While there is a clear need for a data revolution, the causes of environmental harm run much deeper than a lack of data or market inefficiencies. We need nothing short of rapid and transformative system change to tackle the climate crisis. But while data alone cannot solve our environmental problems, it is essential to a broader solution.