The Climate Data Steering Committee
Solving the climate data challenge
Mitigating the worst impacts of climate change requires the world to accelerate actions to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050.
More than 100 countries have either adopted, announced, or are discussing net-zero commitments, covering more than two-thirds of global GHG emissions. While various net-zero emissions pledges have been made, they differ in terms of scope and specificity, and to date, limited policies are in place to deliver on them, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The lack of accessible, high-quality, and consistent data remains one of the biggest challenges for turning net-zero pledges into action.
To deliver the transition to a net-zero economy, we need to address challenges tied to the global availability, comparability, and transparency of climate transition-related data.
Financial institutions need emissions data to assess the carbon footprint and associated climate risk of its investments; as well as to build key models and analytics and develop transition plans.
Civil society needs open access to data to drive collaborative progress with companies and other partners across the global economy.
Companies need comprehensive data on their value chains to measure and disclose their Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions. They also need to be able to benchmark their performance against their peers.
Academic institutions need access to open data to conduct research on climate progress.
Policymakers and regulators need reliable data on greenhouse gas emission reductions to measure progress and develop public policy.
The Climate Data Steering Committee (CDSC) was established by French President Emmanuel Macron and UN Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions Michael R. Bloomberg in June 2022 in response to the global climate data challenge. The CDSC aims to accelerate and help build a broadly accessible foundation of high-quality climate data that is critical to delivering the net-zero transition.
Hear from Members of the Committee
Bringing global leaders together
The CDSC brings together global leaders, including regulators, policymakers, and standards setters, informed by data providers and civil society organizations to accelerate climate action by driving forward global momentum for the private sector to report and disclose key company-level climate transition-related data critical to delivering a net-zero economy.
CDSC members:
Maria Luís Albuquerque
Commissioner for Financial Services and the Savings and Investments Union, European Commission
Ashley Alder
Chair, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), United Kingdom
Andrew Bailey
Chair, Financial Stability Board (FSB)
Fatih Birol
Executive Director, International Energy Agency (IEA)
Patrick de Cambourg
Chair of Sustainability Reporting Board, European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG)
Mathias Cormann
Secretary-General, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Bertrand Dumont
Director General, French Treasury, France
Emmanuel Faber
Chair, International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)
Kristalina Georgieva
Managing Director, International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Unathi Kamlana
Commissioner, Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), South Africa
Herbert Krapa
Minister-of-State in charge of Energy, Ghana
Mario Marcel
Minister of Finance, Chile
Sabine Mauderer
Chair, Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS)
Toshiyuki Miyoshi
Vice Minister for International Affairs, Japan Financial Services Agency
Mary Schapiro
Chair, Climate Data Steering Committee (CDSC)
Jean-Paul Servais
Chair, International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO)
Simon Stiell
Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
Daniela Stoffel
State Secretary for International Finance, Swiss Federal Department of Finance, Switzerland
CDSC observers:
Catherine McKenna
Chair, UNSG High-level Expert Group on Net-Zero Commitments
Ravi Menon
Ambassador for Climate Action, Singapore
To drive forward global momentum for the private sector to disclose key climate data, the CDSC will advise on and oversee the creation of a unified, global, open-access climate data repository of climate transition-related data.
Publications
Learn more about CDSC and NZDPU progress in 2023
The CDSC progress report describes the development of the NZDPU in 2023 and key areas where further progress is needed to increase the comparability, consistency, coverage, quality, and completeness of private sector climate data.
Meeting notes
The Climate Data Steering Committee holds regular working-level meetings of delegates appointed by CDSC members, and periodic principal-level meetings. Summaries of these meetings are provided below.