Leveraging Open Data

💫 The World Meteorological Organization Information System 2.0 (WIS 2.0) has been operational since the start of this year! I am confident that WIS 2.0 will transform how nations share Earth system data in the 21st century—making international, regional, and national data exchange simpler, more effective, and cost-efficient. Real-time data sharing is critical for: ✅ Improving the accuracy of weather forecasts ☁️ ✅ Strengthening global cooperation 🤝 ✅ Supporting early warning systems ⚠️ ✅ Aiding climate research 🌱 ✅ Driving socio-economic development 📈 ✅ Enhancing Earth system monitoring 🔍 A key enabler of this success is WIS2 in a Box—an open-source software solution paired with comprehensive training. This approach has made the technology truly accessible to all countries, regardless of their level of development, allowing them to implement and benefit from WIS 2.0. 🌐 WIS 2.0 showcases how international collaboration can make a real difference in addressing global challenges. And it's a great example of the added value of WMO's work as we celebrate our 75th anniversary this year. #Innovation #DataSharing #ClimateAction #EarlyWarningsForAll More details 📎 https://lnkd.in/dpsMqvmw  

𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗢𝗳 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗔 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗼𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘄 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗨𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗜 𝗧𝗼 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗥𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗲 𝗘𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗔𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗲. In a world where climate action can often feel daunting, having access to precise, actionable data can give us a clear way forward. Imagine having the ability to understand where your city's emissions are coming from, be it where we live or near our workplaces.   I was recently exploring the Environmental Insights Explorer (EIE), developed by Google. EIE, helps cities/regions measure emission sources and refine strategies to reduce emissions by leveraging access to Google’s mapping data and machine learning capabilities. With a few clicks, EIE reveals the emissions footprint from heating, cooling, and powering residential and commercial buildings. This data can help develop usable insights that act as a roadmap showing how and where to reduce energy consumption and switch to greener alternatives. There are additional features, like measuring the transportation impact, rooftop solar panel potential, and tree canopy coverage across different areas in the city. Air quality data is also available for certain cities across the globe. Public data is currently available for viewing for > 2,400 places in a database that comprises thousands of cities/regions. What an interesting and usable example of leveraging data for impact in local communities – while leveraging AI for climate change solutions and intelligent emissions reductions. Image Source: Google Environmental Insights Explorer Website  #techonology #sustainability #future #impact

How can data help us tackle environmental challenges like climate change and deforestation? The Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative (ASDI) is making waves by connecting researchers, businesses, and governments with powerful environmental data resources, so they can take meaningful action on critical issues. Imagine trying to assess the impact of deforestation across a supply chain: The data needed is vast and complex. ASDI steps in to simplify that, offering global datasets for studying climate, natural resources, and biodiversity—all on a shared platform. Take Apple, for example. With ASDI data, they were able to pinpoint specific areas where deforestation was affecting their supply chain and then invest in reforestation. It’s not just corporations benefitting either; in California, government agencies used ASDI’s satellite imagery to identify parts of the coastline most at risk of erosion from rising sea levels, allowing for focused conservation efforts. These stories show that ASDI is more than just a data platform; it’s a tool for turning complex environmental data into clear insights. Having easy access to such data can make all the difference. Researchers, environmental groups, and businesses alike can now collaborate more easily, using shared knowledge to address sustainability challenges more effectively. For those interested in exploring ASDI’s offerings, the AWS Registry of Open Data provides tutorials and hands-on resources that make this data accessible to anyone. Tackling environmental issues takes a collective effort, and initiatives like ASDI are opening doors for more people to get involved in finding solutions that benefit us all. #Biodiversity #DataAnalysis #Sustainability #ClimateChange #EnvironmentalSustainability

Developing and emerging nations in the Global South must enhance the transparency and accessibility of climate change and other interconnected data. This is crucial because it enables them to make informed decisions and take appropriate action to address the challenges posed by these variables. Currently, adaptations are granted at face value. The funding is awarded to those with the most appealing policies that resonate with the sponsor. Typically, vulnerability, risk, and cost projection datasets are used to determine project feasibility. The lack of such data makes it challenging to understand the cost-effectiveness fully and attribute the impacts of projects. Developing nations should enhance data availability to improve the translation of paper money into concrete actions. This is possible by continuously gathering and storing datasets on climate scenarios, future predictions, and climate investments on an open-source platform, which will also increase accessibility. Access to data is a significant issue in Africa, where obtaining free datasets can be time-consuming, even at climate centres. Accessibility to data should not only be available to foreign investors alone but also to local people and private organisations. Providing access to data to local people will encourage the development of interventions informed by concrete and research-based datasets. Locally led initiatives are often developed without such a backing. Improving the accessibility and transparency of data for the private sector will increase their buy-in to invest, as risks can be better informed through conventional approaches. This will lead to a better use of resources, as gaps in the data will be identified after investing. Additionally, states should encourage the cross-sector and cross-organisation sharing of datasets to increase efficacy by merging resources to address common issues and avoid overlapping roles and responsibilities that the same dataset in multiple organisations can address.

The map below shows 2.9 million rows of solar panels in the US producing 186 gigawatts of clean power. Here’s why that matters. A new open dataset, GM-SEUS, is the most comprehensive, publicly available map of ground mounted solar energy systems in the U.S. Over 15,000 solar arrays and 2.9 million individual panel rows, covering nearly 3,000 km² and representing 186 gigawatts of capacity. Why does this matter beyond the energy industry? Because location and design data drive better decisions everywhere: Infrastructure and supply chains: plan grid upgrades, anticipate demand, and size transmission more accurately. Finance and risk: model asset value, insurance exposure, and material reuse at scale. Climate & land use: measure carbon sequestration trade offs, habitat impacts, and agricultural opportunities. Innovation and AI: train geospatial and remote sensing models to detect renewable infrastructure worldwide. Behind the scenes, the team (kudos to Jake Stid who had the original post I saw) harmonized the best open datasets with high resolution aerial imagery, Landsat time series change detection, and machine learning to estimate critical attributes like installation year, mounting technology, tilt, and capacity. When complex geospatial work is translated into clean, open, and actionable data like this, industries far beyond energy can innovate faster and make smarter data driven decisions. 🌎 I'm Matt and I talk about modern GIS, earth observation, AI, and how geospatial is changing. 📬 Want more like this? Join 9k+ others learning from my newsletter → forrest.nyc

🌍 A new era of open data has arrived 🌍 On 1 October 2025, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts - ECMWF made its entire Real-time Catalogue open to all, under a CC-BY-4.0 licence. This is one of the largest meteorological datasets in the world, now freely accessible for science, innovation and entrepreneurship. This moment feels very much like when Landsat data was opened years ago — a decision that unlocked billions in economic value, empowering entrepreneurs, local governments, and innovators to build solutions that no one had imagined at the time. Now, with open meteorological data: 🔹 Local businesses can create new weather-driven services — from agriculture optimisation and insurance models to logistics and retail planning. 🔹 Entrepreneurs and startups gain access to world-class data to train AI/ML models, develop predictive tools, and build new digital products without prohibitive licensing barriers. 🔹 Local governments can improve urban planning, resilience strategies, and climate adaptation measures by tapping into global-scale forecasts at local resolution. 🔹 Communities worldwide benefit from better preparedness, aligning with the UN’s Early Warnings for All initiative — protecting lives and livelihoods. Innovation often begins when barriers to data fall away. With ECMWF opening the gates, we can expect new industries, smarter decisions, and stronger climate resilience to emerge — just as we saw with the Landsat revolution. 💡 The question is: who will be the first to harness this opportunity and turn open forecasts into open futures? https://lnkd.in/e5SEt-dP #OpenData #ClimateResilience #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #WeatherData #ECMWF #AI #Geospatial

As climate change accelerates, policymakers and researchers need immediate access to accurate, science-based data to inform critical decisions about natural climate solutions and forest conservation efforts. That's why the nonprofit CTrees developed the first global system to monitor, report, and verify (MRV) carbon stocks and land-use activities for every ecosystem on land, delivering critical data needs of policy and markets. In this blog, Aleena Ashary and Jules Marenghi explain how CTrees has used the cash funding and cloud credits from its 2024 Amazon Web Services (AWS) Imagine Grant to enhance the organization’s flagship Jurisdictional MRV (JMRV) tool. This free, open data platform provides precise annual measurements of carbon stocks, forest area, emissions, and land use activities—revolutionizing how governments and organizations track climate policy progress and develop jurisdictional carbon credit programs. https://lnkd.in/grmttxXD

🚀 25 years in the making—#OpenCEDA is live! When I released the very first version of the Comprehensive Environmental Data Archive (CEDA) back in 2000 as a PhD student at Leiden, I imagined a world where rigorous, transparent Scope 3 data would be available to anyone tackling climate change. Today that vision becomes reality. CEDA is now free and open to the public at openceda.org—unlocking >95 % of global GDP/GHG coverage, 400 industry sectors across 148 countries and regions, and tens of thousands of up-to-date emissions factors, refreshed annually. This milestone is the work of an incredible community. Deep gratitude to Mo Li, Ph.D., Cheng Lin, Yohanna Maldonado, Michael Steffen, Jake Feintzeig, Jonathan Gidden, Gizem Ilayda Dinç Liston Witherill, Christian Anderson—and every researcher, practitioner, and customer who has shaped CEDA since its 2000 debut. Whether you’re a start-up calculating your footprint, a Fortune 500 driving supply-chain decarbonization, or a researcher pushing LCA boundaries—this data is yours. Dive in, build, question, and tag me with what you create. Let’s accelerate climate action together! #Scope3 #LCA #GHGAccounting #OpenData #Sustainability #ClimateTech

🌍It's not new news: The impact of blocking climate data in federal documents Recent reports about efforts to block the release of climate data from federal documents & websites are deeply concerning. Access to accurate, transparent, and comprehensive climate data is critical for informed decision-making—not just for governments, but for businesses, individuals, and global organisations alike. If this move goes ahead (or continues to), the ripple effects could be significant. I’ve stepped through my thoughts but mostly I'm keen to understand how others are remaining positive with these changes? 🏢 Impact on Businesses🏢 Businesses rely on federal climate data to assess risks, plan for the future, and align with sustainability goals. Without access to this information, companies may struggle to: 👎 Understand and mitigate climate-related risks to their operations and supply chains. 👎 Make informed investments in clean energy and sustainable practices. 👎 Meet regulatory requirements and stakeholder expectations around environmental transparency. Industries like insurance, agriculture, energy, and real estate—which are heavily dependent on climate data for risk modeling and long-term planning—could be hit the hardest. 🙅♀️ Impact on Individuals🙅♀️ For individuals, the lack of accessible climate data could mean: 😞 Reduced ability to make informed decisions about where to live, work, or invest. 😞 Limited understanding of local climate risks, such as flooding, wildfires, or extreme weather events. 😞 Fewer opportunities to hold policymakers and corporations accountable for climate action. 🌎 Impact on Global Climate Organisations🌎 Global organisations like the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) rely on robust, reliable data to inform their analyses and recommendations. Blocking access to U.S. federal climate data could: 💡 Create gaps in global climate models, undermining their accuracy and usefulness. 💡 Hinder the ability to track progress toward international climate goals, such as the Paris Agreement. 💡 Limit the effectiveness of global efforts to address climate change, as data from the U.S. is a critical component of worldwide analysis. While global organisations may still publish their findings, the absence of U.S. federal data could weaken the credibility and comprehensiveness of their reports. This could lead to delays, increased uncertainty, and a lack of consensus on critical climate issues. It is sad because this is yet another barrier on what was already a difficult road. What positives can we take? How do we remain hopeful? #ClimateAction #Sustainability #Climatedata #Transparency #BusinessImpact #carbon Trace | Certified B Corp™

𝐃𝐚𝐲 4️⃣ 𝐨𝐟 3️⃣ 0️⃣: 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 … 𝐢𝐟 𝐧𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭 📢 From remote mountain regions to studio lights and green screens – this is the reality of modern research life. 📸 After months building trust in mountain communities, learning about climate adaptation and traditional livelihoods, I found myself facing an uncomfortable truth: 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐟 𝐢𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐈 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝: Research visibility isn’t vanity. It’s responsibility. 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲: ↪️ 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒉 𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 - Brilliant insights locked in academic jargon help no one. ↪️ 𝑽𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔 - When you amplify fieldwork stories, you give voice to people who deserve to be heard. ↪️ 𝑴𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒊𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒔 - Papers, blogs, social media, podcasts, interviews. Each reaches different audiences. ↪️ 𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒋𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒚, 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒔 - People connect with process and discovery. ↪️ 𝑨𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚 > 𝑷𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 - Genuine passion always resonates more than polished presentations. Sometimes the bravest thing a researcher can do is step into the spotlight and say: “This matters. Here’s why.” #30DayChallenge #ResearchDiary #AcademicVisibility #ScienceCommunication #ResearchImpact