“Information wants to be free,” the American writer Stewart Brand told Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak at a hackers’ conference back in 1984. What was true then is true now and nowhere is that more in evidence than in the battle against climate change. Climate data is everywhere, but how we access, interpret and act on that data is crucial. The Action Hub at COP26 saw a number of different speakers talk about the role of data and AI when it comes to tackling the climate crisis.
Julie Kay is the VP of Sustainability and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I), as well as Executive Director of Qlik.org at Qlik, a tech company based in Pennsylvania, who specialise in data. “Sustainability data is everywhere,” she said at her talk at the Action Hub at COP 26. “It is online, it’s in travel expense reports, in electricity bills, in so many aspects of what we see online. What is not done very well is to actually combine those data sets and make it easier to make decisions.” Kay gives the example of a company who is trying to reduce the carbon footprint of their business travel. “What we find is that the sustainability team would get the carbon footprint data from the travel team and would input it into Excel, but the travel team would not get that data. So, they could not make better decisions around carbon emissions the following year – everything is siloed.”
Qlik tears down the metaphorical walls that often exist within companies so everyone can see – and understand – data in order to make better decisions about the climate. “I cannot just be about providing rear view mirror reporting but how to make better decisions moving forward – that’s what good data can do,” Kay adds.
Qlik works pro bono with a number of companies including the UN and C40 Cities Climate Group to help them interpret, and act on climate data. “Take our work with Boston,” Kay says. “We went in and understood what data they have and the goals they have. We took their data out of spreadsheets and built them dashboards and now they have a very easy to organise online tool – that’s time now spent making decisions and not collating data.”
Another company using data to make big decisions is Planet, a space and AI company that has deployed the largest constellation of Earth-observing satellites in history. The satellites image the entire planet in hi-res every day, and the data is used to monitor ecosystems, improve disaster response and accelerate climate action. Andrew Zolli, Planet’s Chief impact and sustainability officer, said that a lot of the change happening is invisible to us. “So, it’s not cognitively salient for most of us. But, what if we can take new tools and take things that are not visible and make them visible?”
Zolli also explained at the Action Hub how Planet deploys cutting-edge tools to monitor climate change. “Normally satellites that look at the Earth are the size of a school bus and costs hundreds of millions to produce and take decades of planning to make,” Zolli says. “Now however we have satellites that are taking advantage of the same technology that is on your mobile phone and they work together in a swarm. We put them in a ring around the planet and they are always on, collectively imaging the entire surface of the Earth every day.”
“This technology is very new and so there will be [a time lag] between when the data is produced and when it is widely used,” he said. “We are working as hard as possible for this to be a global standard. Governments use this type of satellite data for all kinds of ESG-linked data. The financial markets want this type of information as well. Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, said he is going to treat climate risk and financial risk as the same thing. So, how do you turn that promise into reality? We think of this not just as big data, but big indicators which can align capital and the climate in a much more effective way.”
Lots of this satellite data is already being used. For example, governments in the Tropics use the data to check for indications of illegal clearances in forests which can be a precursor to illegal mining or logging. “We have seen this many times in places such as the Amazon and in Congo, where organisations like Global Forest Watch rely on our maps,” Zolli says. Other groups rely on Planet’s data too. For example, Allen Coral Atlas map and monitor every coral reef from space, and its data has been used to create half a dozen new marine protected areas. Another group using Planet’s data is Climate Trace, which aims to monitor every single emission source on Earth, from factories to farms. “Ultimately, we think of data as a social power; it is not just about economics or financial risk management and in the right hands it has extraordinary levelling capabilities,” Zolli says. “For example, we find if we put this data into the hands of the indigenous peoples so they have the power to stop illegal incursions into their territories.”
“We can also monitor ports so we can detect vessels, not just at port, but when they are not at port. We know that when they turn off their transponders and ‘go dark’ that they are engaging in illegal fishing, but they remain visible to us, which is why a group like Global Fishing Watch uses our maps.
It seems we may be entering a new era of “radical transparency” as Zolli puts it. Maybe information – as well as being free – will help usher in a new era of emissions monitoring, and ultimately, emissions reductions.