Building a culture of climate data sharing

🌱 Return on Collaboration: From Tragedy to Triumph 🍇 What if, instead of the Tragedy of the Commons, we created the Triumph of Collaboration? That’s the story emerging from Tasmania’s wine sector, as told in a remarkable research paper released last week on Enterprise Suitability Mapping. By aligning government investment, scientific innovation, and deep stakeholder engagement, Tasmania turned climate data into collective action and economic value. Q - So what happened? Over a decade of co-investment and co-design between government, researchers, and industry led to high-resolution geospatial maps that guide where and how to grow crops in a changing climate. These aren’t just maps, they’re trust-building tools, conversation starters, and investment de-riskers. The wine industry in Tasmania, particularly, used these tools to: 🍷 Choose optimal vineyard locations 🍷 Match varietals to future climate conditions 🍷 Secure private investment and reduce climate risk 🍷 Spark $ 4 M+ in new development and local jobs Crucially, the success wasn’t just technical; it was cultural. It worked because: 🤝 Collaboration was embedded from the start 🤝 Open data enabled shared understanding 🤝 Mutual benefit replaced individual competition This is a clear case where Return on Collaboration outperformed what any one actor could have achieved alone. It's a blueprint for turning limited resources into collective value. Now imagine this at scale! What if similar collaborative approaches were adopted across Australia’s agricultural and environmental value chains, from regenerative grazing to forestry, aquaculture, and urban development? We could unlock a wave of smarter, climate-resilient investments. Farmers, scientists, Indigenous land stewards, tech innovators, and policymakers working from shared maps, aligned incentives, and trust, not only adapt to climate pressures but also regenerate land, livelihoods, and ecosystems. This is the sort of collaborative action that I want to not only see happening but want to actively support :) The paper was written by Tia Brullo, Jon Barnett, Elissa Waters, Mathew Webb, Sarah Boulter and Darren Kidd. A link is in the comments.

💫 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  

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.