How the Guide Was Developed

The guide draws on WRI’s decades of experience working with partners across the world on access to information and data for improved environmental decision-making. It likewise leverages the expertise of WRI’s other Centers and Programs, including the Climate Program, Food, Forests, and Water Program, Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, Finance Center, and Economics Center. Additional data types were identified through surveys and workshops carried out for the Global Platform for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD) in Tanzania and Sierra Leone and through workshops led by the Center for Open Data Enterprise. The list was further shaped by a review of existing climate-relevant open data portals and relevant guidance (including, for example, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Data Distribution Centre and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s review of climate-relevant statistics). More information on these resources is provided in “Existing public repositories of climatic and climate-relevant data.”

The Guide was presented to climate and open data experts through the Open Government Partnership and at the International Open Data Conference for their feedback and validation of approach and data types selected.

This Guide includes:

  • A list of relevant data types and their key attributes;

  • An overview of the climate data ecosystem, to help users of this guide determine where their open data initiatives should fit in;

  • Example use cases.

The data types listed in this Guide were initially selected by WRI sector experts taking into consideration:

  1. Their potential value to both non-governmental stakeholders and other levels of government.

  2. Their present level and consistency of availability.

This list will continue to be edited and refined in a public consultation with climate change and open data experts.

Last updated