Check out our recent paper, “Nested Climate Accounting for Our Atmospheric Commons —Digital Technologies for Trusted Interoperability Across Fragmented Systems,” where we discuss the design of a next-generation climate accounting system that integrates digital technologies and approaches for near real-time tracking of climate actions.

Post-doctoral Associate Marco Schletz presented on climate change action at the January 2022 World Youth Forum in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, alongside President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, John Kerry, Inger Andersen, among others.

Background image by European Space Agency.

This report is the third and the latest edition of the series since 2018 that takes stock of climate action by cities, regions and businesses and their global aggregate impact on greenhouse gas emissions. The 2021 edition focuses on the progress of non-state and subnational actors toward their emissions reduction targets.

Our new open-access paper in Nature Communications reveals disparities in urban heat exposure in major U.S. cities with a population greater than 250,000. Combining satellite remote sensing data with U.S. Census demographic data, this study – the most comprehensive to date – reveals people of color and below poverty communities are disproportionately exposed to higher heat intensity in urban areas. Read the paper or explore the data in our Google Earth Engine application.

Our new open-access paper in Nature Communications Earth and Environment utilizes natural language processing techniques and a database of over 9,000 city, regional and national government, and corporate climate actions to understand how actors are taking climate action and whether they are coordinated. 

In our new paper in Scientific Data, we make available the largest global database of city and regional government participation in climate action. We also developed an R package to enable efficient data cleaning and addition of contextual data to subnational actors making climate mitigation targets. 

A follow up to our September 2020 report, Navigating the nuances of net-zero targets dives deeper into analyzing the ambition of net-zero targets by cities, regions and businesses. The report is filled with useful case studies and best practices for net-zero target setters to achieve ambition and transparency, while equipping citizens with the knowledge to better assess these targets

Cities generate more than 70 percent of global climate emissions. But they’re also among the most vulnerable places to climate change’s impacts. They have the ability to steer our climate future. Check out Angel’s talk featuring Data-Driven Lab’s work in the TED Climate Countdown event.

Cities, regions and companies are pledging to net-zero emissions on a growing scale, taking important steps towards keeping the Paris Agreement within reach. The number of local governments and businesses committing to a net-zero emissions target by the end of the century has grown since late 2019, according to a new analysis from Data-Driven EnviroLab and NewClimate Institute.