Presented with the universal challenges of sustainable development - of ending poverty, and protecting the planet whilst transforming the world to meet human needs and the necessities of economies - can today's data revolution be the touchstone for global leaders to develop evidence-based courses of action?
UNEP Live enables truly integrated decision-making by weaving together the environmental and socio-economic data of the complex world we live in to create a big picture, showing not only how challenges are interlinked, but how addressing one problem can bring multiple benefits in other areas. For example, by integrating big data gathered from sensors embedded in smartphones with satellite data, UNEP Live can support governments to tackle climate change and at the same time help cities reduce premature deaths caused by air pollution.
Since its launch in 2014, UNEP Live has evolved from a source of data and knowledge into a distributed knowledge platform enabling access to live data and information about the environment all over the world. It now provides access to the latest UN data, over 150 national data systems and information on the environment, society and the economy.
It hosts seven Communities of Practice, with links to citizen science activities. It provides analysis of progress toward globally agreed environmental goals and, through a National Reporting System, enables Member States to streamline their data collection, share information, develop indicators, and report to multilateral agreements.
In a first step towards delivering "SDG Live", UNEP is introducing a new generation of integrated indicators, which link different contexts and areas of knowledge to underpin the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and feed into UN-wide efforts on targets and indicators for the SDGs. The design is aimed at supporting multiple policy targets with a small set of indicators that can track improvements and changes in outcomes and underlying causes. UNEP Live now has visualization tools to show the relationships between indicators of the natural environment, human well-being, society and the economy.
A second step is to keep the world and global leaders informed about the post-2015 agenda. UNEP Live provides daily information drawn from the news, social media, non-governmental organizations and business community on what is being discussed and written about the environment, making it both transparent and accessible in all UN languages.
UNEP Live is not only providing greater access to data and emerging knowledge through collaboration with more people globally and partnerships with more organizations, but is also enhancing data literacy throughout the world.
