Title

AWS re:Invent 2022 - Open data for impact: Quantify and manage climate-related risks (IMP205)

Summary

The session focused on using open data to quantify and manage climate-related risks.
Speakers included Adrian Simonson from NOAA Open Data Dissemination Program and Brendan Riley from OS Climate.
The importance of measuring climate risk using data from various sources like satellites, ground radar stations, and weather buoys was highlighted.
NOAA has over 100 petabytes of data in the AWS Open Data program, accessible to the public without an AWS account.
Adrian Simonson discussed NOAA's cloud journey and the democratization of data accessibility, which supports economic growth and opportunity.
Brendan Riley from OS Climate discussed how they use open data to align with the Paris Agreement and develop mitigation strategies for climate-related risks.
OS Climate is building a data public utility to make data accessible for analyzing climate risk and developing mitigation strategies.
The session concluded with a demonstration of how to use NOAA data with AWS SageMaker Studio Lab and Jupyter Notebooks.

Open data is crucial for addressing climate change and managing risks by enabling innovation and informed decision-making.
The collaboration between public and private sectors, such as NOAA's partnership with AWS, is essential for democratizing data access and leveraging cloud capabilities.
The transition to a low-carbon world presents various risks, including physical, transition, social, economic, and policy risks, which need to be understood and mitigated.
Tools and platforms developed by organizations like OS Climate can help analyze and visualize the impact of climate change and inform policy decisions.
The session emphasized the need for collaboration and community involvement in tackling climate-related challenges, highlighting the role of open-source initiatives in accelerating progress.
The AWS Open Data program's vast repository of climate-related data is a valuable resource for researchers, policymakers, and businesses to access and utilize for climate risk assessment and response planning.