By envisioning and developing an effective climate change data ecosystem (CCDE), national leaders, international organisations, and climate experts can work across data silos and leverage data to address all aspects of the climate crisis. In line with current thinking on data stewardship and on broadening national statistical systems to include diverse sources of data, this approach would ensure that official statistics, administrative data, and data from a wide range of non-governmental sources can be used for reporting, policy making, and ultimately action on climate change adaptation and mitigation.
This paper describes the rationale for developing an effective CCDE, the benefits it could bring, important challenges, principles, and best practices to consider and proposed next steps. It presents use cases from around the world that demonstrate relevant and innovative ways to put climate change data to use. Finally, it lays the groundwork for new or adapted country assessment frameworks to help low and middle-income countries understand and leverage their climate change data. The authors hope that this paper will contribute to the current urgent debate about the best ways to apply data rapidly and effectively to the greatest global challenge of our time.