In several countries, from the US and the UK up to China and Japan, the month of July was one of the most scorching months since the global record-keeping started at the turn of 1800.
The worldwide heatwaves caused deadly wildfires that forced hundreds of residents from their residences.
As the wildfires recede, several countries, including Europe, are struggling with the effects of air pollution from extreme temperatures.
Digital Technology and Innovation Save The Planet
The deadly combination of burned habitats and persistent smoke poses a major risk to the health of both humans and the environment.
Studies have shown that the smoke from wildfires and air pollution that is a result of it cause approximately 33,000 deaths each year and affects the health of a large number of people.
To combat air pollution to reduce air pollution, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) collaborates with other partners to identify innovative solutions using technology to drive major structural changes that improve environmental sustainability and environmental protection and climate action.
Experts believe that shortly, the digital ecosystem of data platforms will play a crucial role in helping to help the world comprehend and fight various environmental threats, including air pollution and methane emissions.
“Various public and private sector players are using digital technology and data to speed up global environmental actions and fundamentally change the business model,” said David Jensen.
He is the coordinator of UNEP’s digital transformation task team. “These collaborations deserve consideration by the global community because they could help to bring about systemic change at unprecedented speed and scale,” he added.
#1. A new age
UNEP contributes to this responsibility via its Digital Transformation program and co-championing the Coalition for Digital Environmental Sustainability as part of the Secretary General’s Digital Roadmap for Cooperation.
UNEP research shows that there’s not enough information to measure the progress of 68 percent of Sustainable Development Goal indicators in the environmental portion.
Digital initiatives use technology to slow the decline of our planet and speed up sustainable financial products, services, and lifestyles.
GEMS Air, the Global Environment Monitoring System for Air (GEMS Air), is among the very first digital tools utilized by UNEP to monitor the state of the environment in real-time on the national, global and local levels.
It is operated through UNEP in conjunction with Swiss technological business IQAir, and GEMS Air is the biggest air pollution network globally, with a network that covers over five hundred cities.
In the year 2020, more than 50 million people accessed the platform. Its data is streamed to digital billboards to inform people about the risks of air pollution in real time. The program aims to expand this feature directly into mobile phone health applications.
In the wake of lessons from GEMS Air, UNEP has created three additional digital platforms to demonstrate the power of digital technologies, such as the cloud computing platform, earth observation, and artificial intelligence.
#2. Controlling freshwater
One of these is The Freshwater Ecosystem Explorer, which offers a thorough analysis of the condition of rivers and lakes across every nation on Earth.
The result of a collaboration with UNEP and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and Google Earth Engine offers open and free data on seasonal and permanent surface water, reservoirs, mangroves, wetlands, and wetlands.
“It is written in a way that is suited to policy, to ensure that governments and citizens can easily evaluate what is changing about freshwater supplies around the world,” explained Stuart Crane, a UNEP freshwater expert.
“That aids countries in tracking their progress toward reaching Sustainable Development Goal Target 6.6.”
Data can be displayed using geospatial maps accompanied by informational graphics. Data can be downloaded at sub-national, national or river basin levels.
The data are regularly updated and provide long-term trends and monthly and annual reports on freshwater coverage.
#3. Combating climate change
UNEP is using data-driven decision-making to achieve significant reductions in methane emissions via the International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMO).
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas responsible for at least one-quarter of global warming.
The observatory was designed to reveal the source of methane emissions by gathering data from various sources, including satellite sensors on the ground, corporate reports and scientific research.
The Global Methane Assessment published by UNEP and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) discovered that reducing methane from human sources by 45 percent over the next 10 years will prevent nearly 0.3degC in global temperature rise by the 2040s.
This would help stop 255,000 premature deaths, 775 asthma-related hospitalizations, and 26 million tonnes of losses to crops worldwide.
“The IMO supports partners and institutions working on methane emissions reduction and can accelerate actions to the level required to mitigate the devastating effects of climate change.” Manfredi Caltagirone, a UNEP methane expert.
By forming through the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0, the methane observatory cooperates with oil and gas companies to increase the transparency and accuracy of methane emissions reports.
Companies that are members have assets covering more than 30 percent of the oil and gas production worldwide. They also work with scientists to fund studies that offer reliable information.
#4. Protecting nature
UNEP is also supporting the United Nations Biodiversity Lab 2.0, a free, open-source platform that provides:
- Information and more than 400 maps show nature’s extent.
- The impact of climate change.
- The size of human growth.
The spatial information can help decision-makers place nature at the center of sustainable development, allowing them to view nature’s systems of natural origin that prevent natural disasters, store planet-warming gases such as carbon dioxide, and provide water and food to billions of billions of people.
More than 61 nations have accessed UN Biodiversity Lab data as part of their national reports in the Convention on Biological Diversity.
This international agreement was created to protect the environment and wildlife. Its version 2.0 of this lab was released in October 2021 as an alliance with UNDP and the UNEP’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre, the Convention on Biodiversity Secretariat and Impact Observatory.
All UNEP’s digital platforms are being merged into the UNEP’s World Environment Situation Room, an online ecosystem of data and analytics that allows users to track progress towards important environment Sustainable Development Goals and multi-lateral agreements at the regional, global and even national levels.
“The technological capability to gauge the global climate change in real-time is crucial for making effective decisions,” said Jensen. “It could have game-changing consequences if this data is fed into these platforms and algorithms of the digital economy so that it could encourage users to make personal changes required to safeguard the natural environment and reach Net Zero.”
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