PRESS KIT
This press kit includes: - Key messages - Social media - Q&A
- Sample quotes - Visual assets
- Advisory Board & Technical Committee - Interview information
- Contact information
KEY MESSAGES
● The Big Data Climate Challenge is hosted by Global Pulse in support of the Secretary-General’s Climate Summit, which will convene leaders from Governments as well as public and private sectors on 23 September 2014 to catalyze climate action.
● The Big Data Climate Challenge seeks to unearth data-driven climate solutions and evidence of the economic dimensions of climate change.
● Call for Submissions was open from 1 May to 30 June 2014. Submissions were evaluated in July and August, and winners were announced on 2 September 2014.
● Submissions were received from 40 different countries and topic areas ranging from public health and deforestation to disaster management and renewable energy.
● The Big Data Climate Challenge brings together the fields of big data and climate change, demonstrating that scalable, data-driven climate solutions exist globally.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Hashtags: #climate2014 #bigdataclimate
Sample tweets:
#BigDataClimate winners use #bigdata to tackle deforestation, agriculture, transit, energy & more http://bit.ly/1x60Dek #climate2014
Climate-smart agriculture project by @CIAT_ and @globalforests win @UN #BigDataClimate Challenge http://bit.ly/1x60Dek
Winners
● Global Forest Project: @globalforests World Resources Institute: @wri
● International Center for Tropical Agriculture: @CIAT_
CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security: @cgiarclimate
Available accounts of “projects to watch” ● Megacities Carbon Project: #megacities
Project partners: @NASAJPL, @usnistgov, @RFF_org, @IPSL_outreach, @ASU ● UNDP Macedonia: @UNDPMK
University of Skopje: @FINKIedu ● UN University WIDER: @UNUWIDER ● Bristol City Energy Services: @BristolEnergy
● Renewable and Appropriate Energy Lab: @BerkeleyRAEL ● Taru: @taru_edge
Please note that not all winners and “projects to watch” teams and organizations have Twitter or Facebook accounts.
Sample Facebook post:
We are pleased to announce the winners of the United Nations #BigDataClimate Challenge, building up to the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Summit on 23 September. The two overall winners and seven “projects to watch” show that fresh, scalable and data-driven climate solutions exist around the world. #climate2014 http://unglobalpulse.org/big-data-climate-challenge-winners-announced
Q&A
Why was the Big Data Climate Challenge established?
The fields of big data and climate change are intersecting as fresh data-driven evidence emerges on the impacts of climate change—and with it new tools and data-powered climate solutions. The Big Data Climate Challenge was launched to identify innovative projects that use data to demonstrate the economic implications of climate impact and opportunities to manage climate risks. Global Pulse, an initiative of the UN Secretary-General on big data, contributes knowledge of the field of big data in partnering with the Secretary-General’s Climate Change Support Team to host the Big Data Climate Challenge. For more, go to http://www.unglobalpulse.org/big-data-climate-launch
What was the timeline of the Big Data Climate Challenge?
What was the criteria for entry?
Projects must be recently implemented or published, founded in the use big data1 and analytics to show the economic implications of climate impact and opportunities to manage climate risks, and demonstrate solid evidence of validity (e.g. peer-reviewed or on-the-ground implementation).
What was the response like?
The response was truly global with submissions from 40 different countries including 14 African nations, 7 Asian countries, 11 European and Middle Eastern countries, 3 Latin American nations and two Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Topics of focus include solar power, emissions, public health, recycling and waste, deforestation, earth science, disaster management, policy, supply chain, human behavior, biodiversity, transportation, renewable energy, green data centers, citizen science, agriculture, conservation and education. For more, go to www.unglobalpulse.org/climate-challenge-response
How did the evaluation work?
The evaluation was conducted in three rounds based on the criteria listed in the Submission Guidelines. First, submissions were scored by at least three members of the Advisory Board and Technical
Committee. The highest scoring submissions were evaluated a second time in a more detailed qualitative review by 12 to 15 advisors. The overall winners and “projects to watch” were determined over a final conference call, during which all scores were considered by participating advisors.
What do the winners and “projects to watch” receive as award?
The two overall winners will be invited to attend the Climate Summit at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 23 September 2014, where their projects will be featured.
Have you received additional press about the Big Data Climate Challenge?
● Fortune (US) feature on how researchers use big data to model the environmental effects of climate change
● Spanish edition El Huffington Post - opinion piece by Global Pulse's Chief of Research ● Information Week (US)
● IT News Africa (Africa)
● Engineering News (New Zealand)
INTERVIEWS
To set up an interview with the following, please contact [email protected]
UN Secretary-General’s Climate Change Support Team:
● Tracy Raczek, Senior Policy Advisor on Climate, Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General UN Global Pulse:
● Dr. Miguel Luengo-Oroz, Chief Scientist, UN Global Pulse Advisory Board and Technical Committee Members:
● Dr. Amy Luers, Director of Climate, Skoll Global Threats
● Dr. Richard Choularton, Chief of Climate Resilience for Food Security Unit, World Food Programme
1
Contact info for Big Data Climate Challenge winners and “Projects to Watch”:
● World Resources Institute – Washington, D.C., US / Contact: James Anderson ([email protected]), Nigel Sizer ([email protected])
● Site-Specific Agriculture Big Data Team, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) – Cali, Colombia / Contacts: Daniel Jimenez ([email protected]), Sylvain Delerce
● Taru – New Delhi, India / Contact: Mahesh Rajasekar ([email protected])
● Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences – Beijing, China / Contacts: Dr. Guo Huadong, Director ([email protected]), Li Zhang
([email protected]), Dong Liang ([email protected])
● UNDP Macedonia, University of Skopje Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering – Skopje, Macedonia / Contact: Jasmina Belcovska ([email protected])
● United Nations University WIDER – Finland / Contact: Finn Tarp, Director ([email protected])
● Bristol City Energy Services – Bristol, UK / Contact: Roddy Black, Energy Project Manager ([email protected])
● Renewable and Appropriate Energy Lab, University of California Berkeley – California, US / Contact: Dr. Dan Kammen, Founding Director ([email protected])
● “Megacities Carbon Project” – Pasadena, California, US / Contact: Riley Duren, Co-Principal Investigator ([email protected])
English, Spanish and French interviews available.
QUOTES
“Big data helps us more deeply understand how climate change can affect our economies, land, health and issues of inequality—with the ultimate aim of delivering solutions, it can empower individuals, communities and policy-makers to make more informed decisions. In the case of the Big Data Climate Challenge Winner on climate-smart agriculture, big data gives farmers valuable information on planting times which can lead to more productive growing seasons; and to the other winner, Global Forest Watch, provides multiple end-users timely data on deforestation. This can inform actions that affect short term deforestation, local economies, and long term changes to our climate.” Tracy Raczek, Senior Policy Advisor on Climate, Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary-General
“We are in a ‘data revolution,’ where data is being generated at an unprecedented velocity and volume across the globe. Big data has the capacity to transform how we respond to crises, hold leaders accountable, measure and evaluate programmes and policies, and assess the well-being of global communities. The Big Data Climate Challenge shows specific new ways big data can deliver insights on climate change to real people, from farmers to policymakers, which is critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals on the post-2015 agenda.” Dr. Miguel Luengo-Oroz, Chief Scientist, United Nations Global Pulse
where deforestation is happening. This is just one of a growing number of exciting new tools to help us tackle climate change and protect the planet.” Andrew Steer, President and CEO, World Resources Institute
“Through a case study in one rice growing area, we observed that the big climate-related factor limiting yields is accumulated solar energy during the grain ripening phase. To ensure that crops get optimum radiation, farmers can just shift the sowing date and adopt rice varieties that are less sensitive to the amount of radiation received. This finding coincides with the results of many years of field research. The difference is that in using big data, this conclusion was reached in just one year—and offers the possibility to link with climate data analysis to provide farmers with site-specific recommendations. As we get more and more data, we’ll soon be able to develop site-specific recommendations for every rice-producing area in Latin America.” Daniel Jimenez, Site-Specific Agriculture Big Data Team Leader, International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)
Additional quotes available on request.
ASSETS
● Big Data Climate Challenge logos
● UN Climate Summit logos
● Map of submissions
ADVISORY BOARD & TECHNICAL COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Advisory Board members:
● Dr. Gunso Kim, Chief Information Officer, City of Seoul (South Korea) ● Dr. Amy Luers, Director, Climate Change, Skoll Global Threats (US)
● Dr. Anthony Nyong, Head, Gender, Climate Change and Sustainable Development Unit, African Development Bank (Cote d’Ivoire)
● Carlo Ratti, MIT Senseable Cities Lab (US)
● Dr. Jayaraman Srinivasan, Chairman, Divecha Centre for Climate Change, Indian Institute of Science (India)
Technical Committee members:
● Dr. Ralf Becker, UN Statistics Division (US)
● Richard Choularton, Chief, Climate Resilience for Food Security (OSZIR), Programme Innovations Service, World Food Programme (Italy)
● Dr. Hubert Gijzen, Director, UNESCO Regional Science Bureau for Asia and the Pacific; UNESCO Representative to Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Timor Leste (Jakarta)
● Elena Manaenkova, Assistant Secretary General of World Meteorological Organization (Geneva) ● Tracy Raczek, Climate Policy Advisor, UN Secretary General’s Climate Change Support Team
(US)
● Mr. Daniel Schensul, Technical Specialist, Climate Change, Population and Development Branch, UNFPA (US)
● Dr. David Wrathall, Associate Academic Officer at United Nations University - Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) (Germany)
ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS
About UN Global Pulse: Global Pulse is an innovation initiative of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, exploring how new data sources and real-time analytics can help policymakers gain new
insights into emerging vulnerabilities and changes in human well-being. Global Pulse is playing a leading role in helping the UN and other development partners adapt the new opportunities created by Big Data to meet the challenges of driving sustainable development. Through public-private partnerships,
innovative analysis and open-source technology development, Global Pulse is strengthening public sector capacity to leverage digital big data for development and resilience. With innovation centers known as Pulse Labs, in New York, Jakarta and Kampala, Global Pulse leverages big data to address topics such as: public health, economic well-being, agriculture & food security, urban resilience and humanitarian action. For more information about Global Pulse, visit www.unglobalpulse.org/.
About UN Climate Summit: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is hosting the Climate Summit on 23 September 2014 at United Nations Headquarters in New York. The Summit will mark the first time in five years that world leaders will get together to chart a bold, new course of action on climate change. Heads of state and government will join leaders from business and civil society to announce new commitments and practical actions to address climate change. The Summit will consist of an opening ceremony, announcements by heads of state and governments, announcements by the private sector, the launch of new initiatives that address key action areas by coalitions of governments, businesses and civil society organizations. There will also be sessions that focus on critical aspects of climate change, including science, people living on the frontlines of climate change, the societal benefits of action, and the economic case for action on climate change. The Secretary-General will summarize the outcome of the day at the closing ceremony. For more information about the Secretary-General’s 2014 Climate Summit, please visit www.un.org/climatechange/summit/.
CONTACT INFO
Sara Cornish
United Nations Global Pulse [email protected] Tel +1 347 982 6684
Dan Shepard
United Nations Department of Public Information [email protected]
