This post is written by Matt Rumsey, Research and Communications Manager, The Center for Open Data Enterprise - __The problem:__ The impacts of climate change are becoming more severe, especially for low-income and minority communities, which have limited resources to prepare for and manage climate risk. - __The solution:__ National and subnational governments can support local communities, especially vulnerable communities, by developing and sharing high-quality climate data. - __Why it matters: __Without data-driven action that helps vulnerable communities, the response to climate change will likely entrench, rather than solve, existing social inequities. Increasingly frequent and severe weather events, growing populations, and ongoing urbanisation are all creating new strains on governments and communities. Climate change is having devastating impacts on local communities, as coastal flooding, water scarcity, heat waves, and other hazards interrupt supply chains, interfere with food access, destroy property, and create new human health risks. These impacts are felt most strongly by vulnerable communities, which often lack the capacity to plan for, and resources to recover from, climate disasters. This issue was thrown into stark relief recently, when power failures triggered by Hurricane Ida and a subsequent heat wave killed at least 10 elderly Americans in Louisiana. The storm’s remnants also caused widespread flooding in New York, killing at least 11 people in basement apartments, which are often rented by immigrants or others of limited means.

Finding a way forward

Earlier this year, the nonprofit Center for Open Data Enterprise (CODE) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) co-hosted a webinar and roundtable on Data for Climate Risk Assessment in Vulnerable Communities to better understand these risks and how to deal with them. CODE has held dozens of roundtables like this with government agencies and other partners in the US and internationally. They are an effective model for public engagement, connecting experts from government, nonprofits and NGOs, academia, and the private sector who share common goals and interests. (The Amazon Sustainability Development Initiative and Amazon Web Services supported CODE’s work on this project.)

Analysing climate risk requires collaboration between disparate parts of government as well as a wide range of non-governmental actors. In the US, NOAA, which has deep expertise in the physical sciences, has to collaborate with agencies like the US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Census Bureau to understand the social and neighbourhood factors that can turn a climate event from a minor inconvenience into a matter of life and death.

The Biden Administration recognises this need for collaboration through its “whole-of-government approach” to climate change. From this perspective, every federal agency will become a climate agency. To some extent, every community has to become a climate-focused community as well.

Building on pre-existing principles

Communities already use data to conduct climate risk assessment and planning across the US. The webinar highlighted examples like a NOAA-funded, citizen-driven effort to map urban heat islands in Richmond, Virginia, which found 9 degree Centigrade disparities between rich and poor neighborhoods on the hottest day of the year.

The roundtable convened nearly 100 experts from government organisations, academic institutions, nonprofits, community groups, and private companies. Discussions built on themes from the webinar and CODE’s Briefing Paper, and informed CODE’s recently published Summary Report, which distills the discussion into three main buckets: Meeting community needs: Communities need technical expertise and capacity to conduct accurate assessments, engagement and consultation, trust building, localised education initiatives, and improved infrastructure and economic flexibility. The federal role: The federal government has the ability and resources to make policy, develop guidance, act as a trusted source of data for local planners and academics, and distribute money and other resources to the most vulnerable communities. Improving the climate data value chain: Climate and climate-relevant data of all kinds need to be more applicable and useful. CODE’s Briefing Paper mapped climate risk data along a “value chain” that analyses the stages and stakeholders involved in the data production process. Using the value chain as a framework, the roundtable clarified a number of issues and opportunities across themes including data access, quality, analysis and use, data needs, and new data sources. Policymakers need access to meaningful, timely, and authoritative data and information to measure climate-related risks and understand the compounding factors that make communities more likely to suffer during climate disasters and struggle to recover in their wake. They also need access to tools to analyze that data and the expertise to put the derived knowledge into action.

Next steps

Roundtable participants identified a range of data sources, analytic models, and other resources to identify and predict climate risks in vulnerable communities. To make these more easily accessible, CODE has created the CODE Climate Risk Data Hub, with more than a dozen data models and more than 50 additional resources in a searchable, sortable format.

Based on major themes that emerged during the roundtable, CODE made 11 high priority recommendations for policymakers and planners. They focus on partnerships and community engagement, standards and other aspects of data development, and applying climate data in the context of socioeconomic and other community factors.

Climate change and its impacts are not limited to one geographic area. Lessons learned from cross-sectoral collaboration will be valuable to planners and policymakers around the world. Furthermore, the roundtable process is a useful model for governments everywhere who need to engage key stakeholders around the best ways to leverage data for climate risk assessment, mitigation, and recovery. *Image credit: [Sue Thompson](https://www.flickr.com/photos/sue90ca/3287082969/in/photolist-61tafi-6z6jjL-65y4Bs-ejhKr7-GRMfH-dphkUQ-ejDPGD-pRaPc-pRaP9-7jMGnT-4nu2sg-7NwbA9-4ntWMF-6Vd9JY-7h1LK3-c9FET9-4pZZiN-e2Gx4d-6cRVcG-7RkPAx-dUMgRP-a3T6my-7Nwbuw-pRaPa-dphcbR-4UmGDb-9grVVr-egkTN-613Eq9-nv7iSF-2amN4L-k4bCfv-etG1q4-4ntX34-3xkWg-etFZZX-2iCQwY-2JVo5J-aTjTev-4ntWje-2iCSpN-7Nscur-35PCV-7Rp5nW-7Nscvv-7Rp5yU-622SNP-4ntW4F-eZU1K-7RkPpZ)* 👋 **You can create a post like this one! Share your thoughts with a community of public servants. [Learn more](https://about.apolitical.co/create-a-post)**