United Nations Climate Change (UNFCCC) has partnered with the OpenEarth Foundation (OEF) to leverage emerging technologies in advancing innovation and transparency for climate action. By using OpenEarth’s cutting edge research and technology in areas such as blockchain and AI, this partnership aims to bolster the UNFCCC with technology to expand the climate innovation agenda in the digital age.
It’s been seven years since the signing of the Paris Agreement; when almost 200 Parties reached consensus to reduce emissions in order to limit global average temperature rise to under 1.5°C. If the parties are to achieve that target, we need to accelerate climate action and track progress in a trusted and transparent way. OpenEarth’s research demonstrates that emerging digital technologies such as machine learning, AI and IoT can play an important role in developing climate solutions that scale and get us closer to achieving the targets agreed upon.
The UNFCCC has enlisted the expertise of OpenEarth’s technology solutions research to support the development of the UN Climate Change Global Innovation Hub (UGIH)- an initiative aiming to promote transformative innovations for a low-emission and climate-resilient future. The aim of the UGIH is to shift the current agenda from an incremental and problem-oriented approach to a transformative, need-based, and solution-oriented one.
The partnership marks an evolution from long-standing working relationships between members of the UNFCCC Executive Team and members of the OpenEarth Executive Team, the union builds on a significant track record in technology design and development for climate action, such as the UNEP Blockchain for Sustainable Energy and Climate Report, the Climate Chain Coalition, the World Bank’s Climate Warehouse, the Camda community and the Global Climate Action Portal.
OpenEarth Foundation conducts research and deployment of open source technologies for climate accounting and finance. OpenEarth’s key expertise is based on the use of collaboration and evolving innovations to accelerate systems change; and key topics such as climate policy, markets, finance and monitoring.
OpenEarth has proven to be a leader in applying transformational digital technology to support climate action where existing solutions have been insufficient in reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement. The combined expertise and technical capacity of OpenEarth, the current climate related projects, and collaborations with a network of trusted organizations, position OpenEarth at the forefront of what could be the model for climate data for the foreseeable future. In particular, providing its expertise to the UGIH and the development of its digital platform demonstrates a positive step into the digital age for the climate sector.
The UGIH digital platform aims to highlight the necessity for radical collaboration in meeting demands for climate and sustainability solutions to create a global aggregate demand for solutions providers to address.
“A close collaboration on innovation with UNFCCC is a fundamental aspect of OpenEarth’s mission. By bridging open digital technology and social innovation into the Paris Agreement process, we can help the secretariat undertake new approaches to scale climate action —in support of both parties and non-party stakeholders. We are extremely excited on the road ahead for the UGIH and our partnership,” shares Martin E. Wainstein, Founder and Executive Director of the OpenEarth Foundation.
Embracing similar ideas behind climate action, both the UGIH and OpenEarth were formed primarily on the ethos of using radical collaboration as a key tenet for achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. This symbiotic partnership takes us a step closer to realizing such ambition can have impactful outcomes in planetary resilience.
Learn more about the UGIH here.
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