Big data for climate action or climate action for big data?

Abstract

Under the banner of “data for good,” companies in the technology, finance, and retail sectors supply their proprietary datasets to development agencies, NGOs, and intergovernmental organizations to help solve an array of social problems. We focus on the activities and implications of the Data for Climate Action campaign, a set of public–private collaborations that wield user data to design innovative responses to the global climate crisis. Drawing on in-depth interviews, first-hand observations at “data for good” events, intergovernmental and international organizational reports, and media publicity, we evaluate the logic driving Data for Climate Action initiatives, examining the implications of applying commercial datasets and expertise to environmental problems. Despite the increasing adoption of Data for Climate Action paradigms in government and public sector efforts to address climate change, we argue Data for Climate Action is better seen as a strategy to legitimate extractive, profit-oriented data practices by companies than a means to achieve global goals for environmental sustainability.

Scrutinizing environmental governance in a digital age: New ways of seeing, participating, and intervening

“…The underlying assumption in such initiatives is that governments (alone) cannot solve grand environmental challenges and that private companies with their data and technological solutions are needed to address these problems more effectively. 72 At the same time, states and supranational organizations are also key enablers of digitalized environmental governance and are making large investments in digital technologies. China has a Digital Earth program, 73 which it presents as an initiative to use ''Big Earth Data'' to ''deal with environmental and societal challenges and [attain] SDGs in the Belt and Road region.''…”

Socioeconomic and resource efficiency impacts of digital public services

“…Enterprises are developing digital products and services to increase environmental sustainability (Feroz et al 2021). Through the use of AI, the IoT, and other data analytics, companies may promote environmentally friendly practices and reduce waste (Espinoza and Aronczyk 2021). Another technique for addressing uncertain, dynamic, and linked environmental concerns is to apply AI (Ye et al 2020).…”

Is digitalization a problem solver or a fire accelerator? Situating digital technologies in sustainability discourses

“…At the very least, such information helps to raise awareness. In 2012, 2014 and 2017 the French telecommunications service Orange (former France Télécom) and a US American data innovation hub and knowledge center hosted a data development challenge with leading technology companies and data scientists to demonstrate the importance of private sector and personal data in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (Espinoza and Aronczyk, 2021).…”

“…While governments consider digitalization as an asset in developing sustainable strategies, internationally operating tech companies like Microsoft and Apple are hoping to sell climate-friendly AI applications that contribute to securing the standard of living of future generations. Both have then a great interest in making the public aware of the benefits of digital technologies in questions of sustainability (Espinoza and Aronczyk, 2021). In this sense, digitalization is seen as 'problem solver' for climate change (Bieser et al, 2020).…”