From country to city-level emissions, measuring adaptation vs. mitigation, tracking climate finance from the public and private sectors, understanding global climate goals and the action needed to meet them requires a wealth of information. Data exists for many aspects of climate change, but with hundreds of platforms and countless datasets, it can be difficult to distinguish the best information for a particular need, or to find where data gaps exist.

This interactive visual shows a matrix of more than 100 major climate data platforms, displayed by topic (x-axis) and geographic level/scale (y-axis). Users can also view this data as a filterable table or download it directly.

Potential use cases include:

  • Climate data analysts can find the most relevant platform for their specific topic and the level at which they work.
  • Funders and data creators can pinpoint data gaps, check if there are existing platforms on a subject to avoid redundancy of new work, or leverage synergies by building on existing work.
  • City planners can find data on peer cities’ emissions and climate actions, as well as how those actions might relate to national-level targets.
  • Decision makers looking for specific data on policy, finance or other topics can find relevant data for various scales, comparing policy or investment from various cities, countries or regions.

Some of the notable patterns found in curating this dataset include: an overarching focus on mitigation, energy and country-level data; numerous platforms showcasing similar datasets; and a general lack of maintenance, even on carefully built datasets. These all underscore a clear need to improve the world’s climate-related data infrastructure.