A decade or more ago, I first met David J. Hayes as part of a quest to understand why methane emissions numbers from EPA, DOI, and the states never aligned or made sense. That was early in what ended up being a fruitful and successful stretch of work on methane at Taxpayers for Common Sense. Autumn Hanna, Steve Ellis and the TCS team worked to shape an important methane waste rule at DOI – and successfully defended it from repeal through the use of the Congressional Review Act. (The only Obama era reg that was targeted for CRA repeal that survived!)
Fast forward to early this year when David asked me to join him, Jason Burnett, and Nick Hart, Ph.D. Hart to launch the Climate Data Collaborative. We had an amazing Climate Week launch event last Thursday at the Doris Duke Foundation. So grateful to Sam Gill and Sacha Spector of DDF (and btw, amazing events team lead by William Wilson and Stephanie Carnright). All of the participants brought a different perspective to the table - White House Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi, Ben Grumbles, Kate Wright, @Kelly Saunders, Michel Gelobter, Jad Daley, Rita Hite, Dave Tenny. Taken together, they really made the case for the need and the possibility of what we are doing with the Climate Data Collaborative: working to bring together public, private, academic, and non-profit actors and data sets to make climate mitigation data open, interoperable, and easy to use for decision makers everywhere.
Climate Week also helped me advance one of my ongoing life goals: meet, work, and hang out with as many smart people as possible. First among that list is Sonia Wang, the first full-time employee of the Climate Data Collaborative and a rock star. Other new or renewed connections who so impressed me include Catherine Atkin, Liv Watson, Mark Gough, Ashley Nelle-Davis, John Turner, John Lang, Amir Sokolowski, Isabela Rahal, Marisa Camargo, Louisa Durkin and many more.
I’m so excited to be part of this incredible effort. Better, more accessible, user-friendly climate data will lead to better decisions and better outcomes. Onward!