Learn about what we are working on at OpenEarth

Climate Change Risk Assessments (CCRAs) play a crucial role in identifying the vulnerabilities and risks that cities face due to climate change. By providing a systematic approach to assess these risks, CCRAs inform decision-making and enable tailored adaptation strategies (these are customized actions designed to address the unique climate risks and vulnerabilities of a specific city or region). We explore the methodology behind CCRAs, scalable tools being tested in Brazil, and how cities like Serra are using this framework to safeguard their future.

At the Open Earth Foundation, we’re excited to introduce CityCatalyst, a platform aimed at supporting cities and regional governments in their journey towards decarbonization. In the face of global efforts to combat climate change, we have identified a critical challenge faced by many cities – the accurate preparation of greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories. CityCatalyst is designed to address this challenge head-on, providing cities with a powerful digital platform to manage their climate data and create comprehensive GHG inventories.

As we look back on our participation at the COP28 conference in Dubai, the OpenEarth Foundation's presence and contributions were not only significant, but also marked a pivotal point in our journey. Led by our Executive Director and Founder, Martin Wainstein, our team engaged in crucial discussions, showcasing our innovative solutions and forging vital partnerships.

This past September, members of the OpenEarth team attended New York Climate Week to participate in and host several key climate, technology and data events. One of our main events was in partnership with the Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM) and the World Geospatial Industry Council (WGIC), where we showcased pioneering organizations and solutions propelling city climate action through data and AI, fostering partnerships that cater to local governments' needs for swift and expansive climate action. Our new CityCatalyst project was highlighted to showcase that successful city climate action hinges on data and tools for informed decision-making, streamlined action, and reduced technical burden. Our new tool leverages geospatial data, AI, and digital infrastructure, alongside coordination, to bridge local gaps and streamline action.

The Climate Action Data 2.0 community, co-convened by OpenEarth, has worked on digitally-enabling an independent Global Stocktake for the past two years. The Global Stocktake is the collective monitoring exercise for the Paris Agreement, and it has moved from the technical phase to the political phase by starting conversations around how climate action can lead to real accountability and the part the UNFCCC can play.

During June, two of our OEF team members went to Bonn, Germany for the UNFCCC Technical Dialogues. Louisa Durkin and Martin Wainstein attended numerous events, where discussions were had about innovating climate action through digital and data architecture. We showcased the now live and populated openclimate.network platform, designed to support a Digitally Enabled Independent Global Stocktake (DIGS), and particularly relevant in the context of the newly announced UNFCCC Accountability Framework. We also attended workshops with the UNFCCC Global Innovation Hub, and met with the global city networks (C40, GCoM and ICLEI) to discuss the launch of our CityCatalyst programs.

To help improve the way companies invest in sustainability, OpenEarth, in collaboration with UC Berkeley and Chainlink Labs, has launched the first iteration of our digital carbon pricing tools, which include a carbon pricing calculator and educational resources, an API, and a Chainlink oracle that delivers the social price of carbon to blockchains.

At OpenEarth we recently conducted user testing of our OpenClimate platform. In this blog post, we will discuss our testing methodology, the main results, the challenges users face when searching for climate information, and the conclusions we drew from the process.

Carlos Octavio Graffi, our Product Design Lead at OpenEarth, shares how complex challenges like climate change mitigation can be addressed by the designer’s work.

How the Open Earth Foundation’s Ocean Program contributes to the implementation and progress of international agreements, treaties, and goals at a global and local level.

A reflection from our Climate Action Data 2.0 February meeting.

An assessment of the emerging actors for stocktaking collective progress toward the Global Biodiversity Framework

To help improve the way companies invest in sustainability, we are releasing a Chainlink carbon pricing oracle, in collaboration with UC Berkeley, that delivers the true social price of carbon to blockchains. By dynamically leveraging the latest scientific models to provide accurate estimates of the social price of carbon, organizations can better mitigate their climate impact by accurately pricing the social cost of their carbon emissions.

1 year ago today, the OpenEarth Foundation hosted OceanDrop, an NFT art fundraising auction to raise funds for our Ocean Program! The OceanDrop campaign was successful in helping start our program, which launched in February 2022, and raised awareness about ocean conservation.

Technical components must be innovated and developed in collaboration with practitioners on the ground and climate experts. Web3 and the legacy climate system can inspire one another and develop evolving synergies.

COP has just finished up in Sharm El Sheik and we had two of our teammates there representing OpenEarth. The Paris Agreement is a very powerful tool we have for global collaboration to progress on environmental goals. We are honored to be able to develop open source technology as a partner of UNFCCC. Here are some highlights from our time in Egypt.

Our Ocean Program has launched our first whitepaper on Marine Ecosystem Credits. These credits will scale conservation of the ocean and it's ecosystems through innovative solutions.

The OpenClimate platform is an open sourced nested accounting platform that is designed to digitally-enable the independent global stocktake.

Representatives from winning teams will present their work on Science Day, November 10th at COP27.

Open Earth’s Oceans Program launched in February 2022, with a goal of developing innovative tools to scale ocean conservation finance. Our program was launched with the support from the OceanDrop.art NFT fundraiser and the passionate artists who collaborated with OpenEarth to make this program possible, and to protect our ocean.

For the past two years OpenEarth Foundation has been advancing big picture, planetary-scale innovations around climate action and environmental resilience. We are proud of what we have accomplished for such a young organization, and we believe there is still so much yet to achieve in order to tackle both the climate and biodiversity crises.

OpenEarth Foundation has joined the Linux Foundation’s open source collaboration, OS-Climate, to work together to further develop data commons that enable nested accounting of climate data and alignment with Paris Agreement goals.

OpenEarth is developing a pilot with the government of British Columbia for their companies and trusted auditors to issue verifiable climate credentials for improved ESG reporting and, through nested accounting, integrate corporate data into subnational climate inventories.

Climate week is a series of asynchronous events that are relevant to those working in the climate action space. The most official events are hosted by Climate Group. Additionally, there are meetings of the General Assembly of the United Nations during Climate Week.

United Nations Climate Change (UNFCCC) has partnered with the OpenEarth Foundation (OEF) to leverage emerging technologies in advancing innovation and transparency for climate action.

How to achieve the carbon pricing we deserve.

The OpenClimate project aims to create an open source (mitigation) accounting system to limit global warming to 1.5oC, as set out in the Paris Agreement.

We recently participated in the meetings of the Subsidiary Bodies (SB) of the Bonn Climate Change Conference, which includes the 56th meetings of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), convened from 6-16 June 2022 in Bonn, Germany.

OpenEarth’s work and mission is quite unique and it felt we needed new branding, an updated logo and an evolving website to ensure our brand and image would help us convey our essence to prepare us for the next 10 years ahead.

The goal of this blog post is to introduce the reader to the OpenEarth AcInf research blog series. In blog 1 you will read about our core motivation for using Active Inference (ActInf for short) as a computer modeling strategy to study and solve planetary problems (§ 1-2).

The OEF team dove into COP26 focusing on three key initiatives which will enable adherence to and ambitions under the rulebook and enable and accelerate initiatives across the pillars of collective climate action

A nested accounting system integrates climate-related information from different data collection approaches and across all actors.

The CAD2.0 working group consists of more than 60 organizations representing the data and analytic community that focus on NSA contributions to global climate governance.

Today, we celebrate a full circle around the sun since CarbonDrop, a NFT art auction to support Open Digital technology for Earth.

OpenEarth was invited to contribute a chapter to a special report produced by UNEP called ‘Blockchain for sustainable energy and climate in the Global South.’ Our contribution focused more on how to use systems thinking to identify transformative solutions in the blockchain and digital technology space.

The #CarbonDrop NFT Art auction and fundraising event closed on Monday, March 22, raising a total of $6.6 million dollars.

OEF decided to bring everyone together in Los Angeles, California to collaborate in person while living with each other for 4 days… and it was magical!

Since our formal incorporation on September 21, 2020, OpenEarth has evolved from a validated innovation model at Yale’s Open Innovation Lab into a relevant global player in the climate tech space, building open infrastructure for a more resilient planet.