The climate data challenge: the critical role of open-source and neutral data platforms - UNEP Finance Initiative
The climate data challenge: the critical role of open-source and neutral data platforms - United Nations Environment - Finance Initiative
As the impacts of climate change become increasingly apparent, the demand for robust climate data has surged among stakeholders, including financial institutions, market participants, and regulators. Data is crucial for conducting comprehensive climate risk assessments, improving reporting and disclosure quality, and emphasising effective climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. The path forward features significant hurdles, notably in data availability, quality, comparability, and timeliness, compounded by the high costs of data acquisition, and these challenges ultimately hinder effective climate risk and opportunity assessments, showcasing the need for accessible and reliable climate data. This latest report explores the challenges that companies, including financial institutions, could encounter concerning their management of critical climate data.
It is a technical supplement to UNEP FI’s renowned annual Climate Risk Landscape Report which serves as a comprehensive resource delving into the available tools for financial institutions to assess physical and transition climate risks and boost their institution’s resilience to related impacts.
This report has been produced by UNEP FI’s Risk Centre. Find out more about this new virtual hub that is integrating resources to help UNEP FI’s members tackle sustainability risks.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”