Event Recap: Data-Informed Climate Change Initiatives

Event Recap: Climate Change Initiatives in the World Of Data, February 26, 2020

Technologists, climate activists and nonprofits came together with LA Tech4Good and Data Con LA at Phase Two in Culver City to celebrate three inspiring projects utilizing data to address climate change. Speakers shared varied work which offered a broad perspective from grassroots to global climate initiatives.

• Emily Conant, Data Scientist at Nexleaf Analytics, brought experience in data tracking of clean cookstoves and black carbon together with on-the-ground user interaction in India and Africa.

• Dena Montague, Research Associate at UC Santa Barbara, shared practice with solar in sub-Saharan Africa and efforts to bring a non-Western perspective to data analysis.

• Gabriel René, Executive Director at VERSES Labs & Foundation, discussed their program to create accounting standards and an open platform to measure adherence to the Paris Climate Agreement.

The three projects are impressive:

• Nexleaf Analytics is using data to increase the adoption and continued use of clean cooking tools.

Emily Conant is working to preserve human life and protect our planet by designing sensor technologies, generating data analytics, and advocating for data-driven solutions to global challenges. Nexleaf takes a bottom up approach to human health and climate change, focusing on mid and low income countries. Currently almost half of the world’s population (roughly 3 billion people) rely on fires inside their homes to cook. This mode of cooking produces black carbon, a harmful byproduct that negatively impacts human health and contributes to global warming. Cook stoves contribute to 24% of black carbon emissions. 

Nexleaf is promoting clean cooking by encouraging people to cook on improved cook stoves that are more efficient and low-emission. Many organizations disseminate clean cook stoves, but they don’t follow up to make sure people actually adopt and continue to use them. In contrast, Nexleaf uses data to monitor adoption, track ongoing usage and emission reduction, and take action if needed. If a household’s cooking behavior suddenly changes, Nexleaf’s partners will be notified, and someone checks on the household to see what’s needed. Conant notes that combining data with human contact is important in driving positive outcomes. Nexleaf takes an iterative and community-focused approach to obtain wider adoption and ongoing usage. Instead of dropping off clean cook stoves that we think are a good solution, they iterate and work with local communities to find the best prototype to meet people’s actual needs and environments. 

• EnergieRich is using data to find a way to maintain Africa’s low greenhouse emissions while increasing economic growth.

Dena Montague is Co-Founder of EnergieRich and a participant in the Global Environmental Justice Project at UCSB. Sub-Saharan Africa is most vulnerable to climate change but emits the least greenhouse gases. EnergieRich expands solar energy access with locally produced clean energy solutions to promote justice in Burkina Faso. Working with local teams and Stanford students of color, they co-develop clean energy products such as a portable solar lamp and a solar powered poultry egg incubator.  

Companies install solar powered panels in Africa, but they often don’t maintain them or track the impact, resulting in some underperforming or ineffective panels. Dust is also an issue. Stewart Issacs and Danielle Woods at MIT Media Lab are using satellite data to quantify dust, air quality, and solar energy in Burkina Faso and develop a model to predict the impact of dust events on future solar power generation. They’re using data to uncover the hidden costs and problems associated with solar implementation. 

Montague is also working to understand and build on local modes of knowledge, as well as expand what data, data collection, and data analysis mean from a non-Western perspective. Science and technology is often in a Western framework and imposed upon other populations who have different cultural contexts when thinking about data and science. 

• VERSES Labs is using data to develop global standards to help meet goals outlined under the Paris Climate Agreement. 

René and VERSUS are working to power the spatial web - the physical version of today’s web - and provide a better way to integrate semantic data, social policy, and geolocation data into a shared context. With the Paris Climate Agreement, we set goals for ourselves, but we don’t have a concrete plan to achieve these goals. We need data to better understand what we’re facing and help measure our progress. VERSUS Labs is working with Yale Open Climate and MIT Media Lab to create global, transparent, and integrated climate accounting standards and an open platform where everyone around the world can collaborate.

The evening’s takeaways

The panel was moderated by Karen Borchgrevink, Executive Director of LA Tech4Good, who set the tone for the evening with the phrase that a rising tide lifts all boats and the aim to raise our level of data activism.

She asked the speakers what can we as individuals do? Emily urged us to be advocates for data integrity and push companies and leaders to back up their claims with real data, Gabe encouraged us to vote for people who believe in science, and Dena asked us to think about local communities and keep them central and involved in any solutioning processes. Subash D’Souza, organizer of Data Con LA and their Data4Good initiative, encouraged everyone to get involved. If you don’t feel you can commit full-time, Data4Good encourages you to get involved and devote your skills and knowledge on nights and weekends.

Overall it was an inspiring and encouraging evening. We heard from three impressive professionals who are working on impactful projects, and the lively questions and discussion will encourage the community to get more involved. 

One message that came out of the evening is that we all need to work together to address this problem. We need to listen and create a collective, global plan to figure out what’s missing and then use data to help define, focus, and measure our efforts, and we need to inspire and empower people at the local and community level to enact change. Rather than just throw money at the problem; we need to work with communities and co-develop solutions to figure out what works.

Thanks to Meghan Wenzel for the recap!