The Climate Ledger Initiative (CLI) aims to accelerate climate action by using digital innovation. In its Navigating Report 2023, the international multi-stakeholder initiative, which is coordinated by INFRAS, looks back at important milestones and provides an outlook on digitalisation trends.
Just in time for the UN Climate Conference 2023 (COP28 UAE), the Climate Ledger Initiative (CLI) has launched its annual ‘Navigating Digital Innovation for Climate Action’ report.
Six years of digital climate action
In recent years, the Climate Ledger Initiative has carried out a wide range of activities: In various events and practical use cases the CLI has brought together representatives of developing and developed countries, international institutions, climate change practitioners and digital experts and entrepreneurs. The six annual CLI Navigating Reports represent a fascinating history of the evolving trends, of what was at the time hype, and is now an emerging, albeit very different reality.
The sixth edition of the Navigating report
- looks back at important milestones since the initiation of the CLI in 2017 to today,
- showcases digital innovations and climate action in practice by presenting real-life use cases from all over the world as well as lessons learned from their implementation,
- and provides an expert outlook on digital developments for climate action in the coming years.
Review and outlook lead to three main conclusions
Based on these experiences the lead authors draw three conclusions on the use of digitalisation for climate action:
1. Although reality rarely matches the technological hype, experience has been gained in how to short-circuit this learning curve and move straight to real collaboration between innovators and experts. The real use cases in this report prove that reality is often even more interesting than speculation.
2. Even if hard to implement, good governance and consideration for ethics and moral hazards are essential to credibility. Technology solutions and applications simply cannot take off if they are encumbered by reputational and legal risk.
3. Collaboration is key. This is particularly true for technology enthusiasts and established experts and practitioners from the climate space.
Future development and continuation of the CLI
'What we have seen and learned in six years is incredibly exciting and has the potential, if combined with strong governance, ethics and collaboration, to change the way we do climate action', says Juerg Fuessler, member of CLI project team and managing partner at INFRAS. He continues: 'Technology cannot save the climate crisis, only we humans can do that. But human efforts can be enhanced, accelerated, unlocked and made fairer and more transparent with the efficacious use of technology.'
In a nutshell: The Climate Ledger Initiative
The Climate Ledger Initiative (CLI) is an international, multi-stakeholder initiative at the intersection of climate change and the use of digital innovations. Its focus is to accelerate climate action in line with the Paris Climate Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by using innovative digital solutions. The CLI was founded in 2017 and is jointly governed by INFRAS and the Gold Standard Foundation. It is supported by governments, major international organisations, companies and foundations.
Knowledge products and further materials
With this Navigating Report, the current CLI phase, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, comes to an end in 2023. More than 15 use cases successfully implemented by CLI partners, over 80 presentations, workshop and webinars held, 12 knowledge products, fact sheets and whitepapers developed with more than ten partners - and all summarised in six Navigating Reports - remain a sound basis for future endeavours in digital climate action.
- Website of the Climate Ledger Initiative
- Knowledge products and Navigating Reports (2017-2023)
- Climate Ledger Initiative on LinkedIn
Project team
