Geospatial tools to answer the IPCC’s call for climate action
Policymakers, companies’ sustainability managers, conservation professionals, local communities and indigenous groups need to be able to take the leap from data analysis to planning and implementation of ‘deep, rapid and sustained climate change mitigation and adaptation measures,’ which the IPCC calls for. Geospatial tools can help.
This decade is likely our last chance to get our act together on climate change, according to the recently released sixth and final IPCC Assessment Report. Limiting global warming to 1.5°C is only possible if we reduce GHG emissions across all sectors rapidly, significantly and immediately. To enable such quick and comprehensive climate action, scientists, developers and designers are transforming open geospatial data tools into actionable services.
Following debrief with experts within Vizzuality, scientist Ángel Arcones sat with me to discuss the link between the IPCC report’s findings and innovations in geospatial service design. He identified the key areas from a host of critical thematics of climate action highlighted in the report, for which existing geospatial resources can accelerate climate action:
- supporting vulnerable communities to take climate action
- pushing the private sector to lead the sustainable economy transition
- empowering a growing and increasingly diverse conservation movement to take conservation action
- enabling decision-makers to set and track climate goals
“Science coupled with open data and geospatial services is supporting our efforts to overcome obstacles posed by complexity, incoherence, access and limited technological expertise,” reflected Arcones as he discussed the following specific results of what he views as the geospatial communities’ “increasing search for contextualization and information that can be turned into action.”
Empowering vulnerable societies to protect their surroundings
The vulnerability of people in poverty to climate change effects is one key issue highlighted by the IPCC report. Residents of poorer climate-vulnerable nations are “up to 15 times more likely to die in floods, droughts and storms,” said the IPCC science panel’s lead author, Hoesung Lee.
One opportunity available for nations most affected by climate change is to use data on ecosystem services to tap the potential of their environments to their own benefits. “Many of the countries that will experience most of the disproportionate effects are tropical countries that host ecosystems that humans can restore in ways that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, benefiting people and nature all at once,” said Arcones who has contributed to data transformation, data updates and creation of visualization prototypes for Global Mangrove Watch (GMW).
GMW is an online platform convened by Aberystwyth University, solo Earth Observation, The Nature Conservancy, and Wetlands International, for monitoring mangroves. It now incorporates new measures of the potential of nature-based solutions.
“Mangroves are one of the most productive ecosystems,” Arcones explained. “They’re only located in tropical countries serving as a really valuable resource which mitigates climate change effects — in the function of carbon sinks — and impacts — such as flood protection and coastal erosion prevention mechanisms.”
By adding new features such as a comprehensive assessment of mangroves’ carbon market potential through quantifiable numbers adjustable to any carbon credit price, GMW enables conservation managers and local activists to make the case to investors and policymakers for the socio-economic and environmental benefits of mangrove conservation in countries around the world.
“GMW really focuses on the value of actions. Even at a high carbon price, you generally see the great potential for mangroves to be treated by all their host countries as valuable assets empowering them to mitigate climate change,” Arcones explained.
Enabling companies to promote regenerative practices
“Tropical regions and their rich ecosystems are also home to a plethora of resources vital for agricultural production, the fashion industry, and the energy market,” explained Arcones. The IPCC report attributes 22% of global emissions to agriculture, while the majority of private corporations’ GHG emissions occur throughout their extended supply chain, known as Scope 3 emissions. The newly developed geospatial platform LandGriffon supports companies in implementing environmentally friendly and socially responsible material production approaches into their supply chain.
LandGriffon, developed by Vizzuality and Satelligence, and advised by the Stockholm Environment Institute and their Trase Initiative, centralizes a company’s supply chain data and sustainability decision-making. Companies can calculate their environmental impacts and plan strategies for change. This empowers companies to relieve environmental stress in regions that often suffer disproportionately from environmental degradation due to resource extraction as well as the associated climate change effects.
LandGriffon’s indicators balance the need for action on climate and nature with baseline indicators in water stress, biodiversity loss, deforestation and carbon emissions associated with land use change and forest loss. Through the enhanced knowledge of the extent of their impact and where it occurs, corporations can take action to favor more sustainable sourcing targets. Prioritizing more sustainable material production can lead local producers to favor effective climate adaptation options in the agricultural sector, aligning with the IPCC’s intention to promote “cultivar improvements, agroforestry, community-based adaptation, farm and landscape diversification.”
Such agricultural adaptations form the basis for measures with high total climate mitigation potential, such as “reduced deforestation in tropical regions,” according to the IPCC. Their implementation can be accelerated through LandGriffon’s design “for holistic assessment and prioritization,” as described by Vizzuality’s scientists and LandGriffon developers Elena Palao and Mike Harfoot in a presentation of data-based platforms that support the regenerative agriculture transition at the IPSERA conference.
In short: with the help of tools like LandGriffon, companies can identify high-risk and high-opportunity areas of their supply chain where they can work with suppliers or farmers to implement regenerative agriculture programs and make the best use of their internal resources.
Extending ecosystem preservation through prioritization
Adopting nature-based solutions and regenerative agricultural practices are crucial responses to the climate crisis. But for them to work and for the planet to have any chance of mitigating climate change at a large scale, biodiversity conservation will play a crucial role. The IPCC estimates that maintaining global ecosystem resilience “depends on effective and equitable conservation of 30% to 50% of Earth’s land, freshwater and ocean areas.”
Reaching these conservation goals requires targeted management as well as the participation of many new actors within a growing global movement. Extending conservation approaches beyond traditional decision-making processes involves a far greater set of stakeholders worldwide, ranging from international institutions, governments, NGOs, to local communities, indigenous groups and more.
“Engaging a global community on evidence-based planning is both an opportunity and a challenge. We need tools that enable a wide cross-section of the planet to make quick, good decisions about where and how to invest in biodiversity conservation,” Vizzuality CEO Craig Mills recently said in an interview upon the release of an update to Marxan, the world’s leading spatial conservation planning software.
Developed by The Nature Conservancy, Microsoft, and Vizzuality, Marxan’s new design facilitates operability to match the desires of traditional and new players in the conservation field alike. “User-centered design is important because there will be significantly more people that will be involved in planning and creating new conservation areas. We need to address their needs,” explained Mills.
As the only cloud-hosted platform that enables spatial conservation prioritization, Marxan focuses on decision-making through optimization and a customized user interface. Users input conservation goals to compute solutions ranging from focusing on biodiversity by ensuring species persist through time in a landscape, to minimizing the economic toll conservation may have on industries, or balancing the needs of the green energy transition.
“Marxan is one of the top examples of a planning tool that goes straight to the point for planning. It empowers multidimensional planning and invites in a whole new set of players,” said Arcones.
Empowering everyone to track climate progress
It’s not just biodiversity conservation that depends on effective planning. The IPCC report underscores the importance of clear government goals and coordination to facilitate effective climate action: “Regulatory and economic instruments can support deep emissions reductions and climate resilience if scaled up and applied widely. Climate resilient development benefits from drawing on diverse knowledge,” the report states.
Climate Watch, led by the World Resources Institute, allows politicians, members of the media, private corporations, NGOs and the general public alike to track how the world as a whole and individual countries respectively are progressing with their climate targets. The platform informs decision makers who want to assess the specific sources of emissions per sector in a given country or find a comprehensive overview of the exact Nationally Determined Contributions countries have committed to. What’s more, Climate Watch provides private citizens with the gift of transparency to gain an in-depth understanding of national and global progress on climate action and empowers them to hold policymakers accountable.
Using IPCC, private sector and country-specific data models, the platform also allows users to explore pathways for countries to reach their goals and the consequences of future policy scenarios. “The analytical tools and interface of Climate Watch put decision makers into a powerful position when devising policy and measures to mitigate the effects of climate change,” said Arcones.
Promoting rapid comprehensive climate action
The IPCC report’s main message is clear. In the words of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres we need “climate action on all fronts — everything, everywhere, all at once.”
But the IPCC’s findings also mean we are now in the last decade in which the door to opportunity still remains open. Opportunity to reform laws and policy, reinvest in social equality, restructure supply chains and business operations, and to refine climate mitigation, biodiversity conservation and extreme climate adaptation measures.
So, together, let’s tap the potential of the geospatial technology and tools at our service to make it happen! Let’s take advantage of their functionalities to support vulnerable communities, to lead the private sector through the sustainable economy transition, to empower and grow the global conservation community, and to enable decision-makers to keep on setting more ambitious climate goals while making sure they follow through with them.
Let’s also continue building and improving on the platforms we already have. Arcones described the momentum “for contextualization and information” within the geospatial community that “can be turned into action.” More such actionable services and functionalities must follow to address the urgency for immediate, all-encompassing climate mitigation and adaptation.
“Most of us are going to be affected by climate change,” as Arcones put it. “It’s not something that is in our future, it’s really at the door now.” Humanity has shown before that we can effect systemic change at a rapid pace. This time we have tools, data and computing power on our side to help us. Geospatial tools can promote feasible, effective, and low-cost options for climate mitigation and adaptation which — the IPCC report’s authoring panel of scientists stressed — “are already available.”
By linking data analysis with proven climate measures, geospatial tools can accelerate the implementation of a wide range of climate mitigation and adaptation actions that the IPCC deems crucial to limit climate change. Let geospatial technology play its role in promoting comprehensive and rapid climate action — everything, everywhere, all at once.
