But what happens when we\u2019re not even at \u2018good\u2019 yet<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sorting out today\u2019s challenges needs consideration of what gets \u2018embedded in the system\u2019 so that, instead of the 100x impact we need, we stumble into creating 100x friction in a few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a bar for good enough<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watching the unfolding developments in data sharing, with environmental reporting as an exemplar of the size of the challenge, we are still very far away from good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, when I look at the landscape of carbon reporting, I see necessary progress from global standards bodies and regulators to mandate<\/strong> that companies must<\/strong> report. This will impact every business (not just the big ones) because those standards mandate<\/strong> that lenders (e.g. banks) must <\/strong>report on the businesses they are lending to (i.e. pretty much every business).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Note the emphasis on mandate<\/strong> and must<\/strong>. This isn\u2019t going to be optional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The natural response to Big Problems is to say things like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our approximations of investment risk for climate are not yet deeply rooted in reality \u2014 we don\u2019t know what the real impact of most of our low-carbon investments will be. If I was to ask you to make a financial investment where I could say your bank balance was \u2018about $100 plus or minus $50\u2019 you wouldn\u2019t give me your money. Right now, \u2018carbon reporting\u2019 has error bars. Large ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People are reporting (because they must) and investing (because they also, must) but there is very scant data that shows that $X invested will link to exactly Y tonnes of climate impact. I don\u2019t (just) mean offsetting, I mean exactly how much will I reduce my footprint by if I invest in changing a process. This is \u2018okay\u2019 (for some definitions of okay) for the business-as-usual economy, where market corrections emerge over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m confident we\u2019re investing in a lower-carbon future, but I\u2019m not confident that we\u2019re investing in a net zero future. With climate, physics doesn\u2019t care about our economy<\/a>. It matters today, not tomorrow, that we have the right numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is still the go-to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It \u2018feels\u2019 safer and easier to control. Everyone can kind of get their heads around \u2018building a database\u2019. I\u2019ve<\/a>, covered<\/a>, this<\/a>, many<\/a>, times<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Except, everyone<\/strong> makes their own. They\u2019re mostly tech-first, not market-first. They don\u2019t scale. They are, despite the marketing hype, not interoperable. It\u2019s [still] a mess. It\u2019s going to get a lot worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The challenge is that everyone is happy to collect data as long as they don\u2019t need to share theirs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, there are $100M\u2019s (hundreds of millions) being invested in private sector companies to create the next generation of eco-unicorns (whether software solutions, insurance companies or rating agencies). The castle & moat business models that these rely on are already at play, and that\u2019s baked into their design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are over 300 million companies in the world. Most large companies report over 70% of their carbon footprint is in their supply chains (e.g. SMEs). For lenders, the majority of their carbon footprint is in their customer chain (e.g. SMEs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n How are we going to collect, check, calculate, verify, audit and share this data between organisations, across borders, in a comparable manner \u2014 and doesn\u2019t undermine business confidentiality or national security?<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, what can we do differently? What things can change, and what things won\u2019t?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I doubt we can change the castle & moat business model, so let\u2019s not try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What we can do now<\/strong> is change how we design data markets from the outset<\/strong> to connect, not [just] collect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Doing so would be good news for businesses. If they do this, they\u2019ll save money and<\/strong> get more and better data faster, and at scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The good news for everyone else is it can help create a race-to-the-top on insights<\/strong> instead of just relentless monetisation of the raw data, while also putting in place the right protections and security that everyone needs (including the businesses themselves), so everyone can engage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The key is, in business language, to shift where the line is on \u2018pre-competitive\u2019 access to data<\/strong>. To achieve this, we must ensure that the right foundations (robust data governance, technical and legal interoperability, common processes) are in place. The outcome will be that we can commoditise access<\/strong> to data, while enabling the value of data<\/strong> to be paid for or exchanged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bar for good<\/em> should be increased competition<\/strong> on analytics and measurable impact, not on the \u2018biggest database\u2019 (big data is so 1990s<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2024 good<\/em> should assume (secure, permission-based, valued) access and unleash the power of our systems (human, financial, technical \u2014 including AI) to deliver the changes we need, quickly. Really quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The foundations of this have very little to do with \u2018web tech\u2019 (it\u2019s already built), and a lot to do with culture, process, law and policy. If you\u2019d like to learn about how we\u2019re doing in one area, to help automate carbon reporting for every UK SME, see https:\/\/ib1.org\/perseus<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n I may write equivalent pieces on data sharing in other areas we are working on, such as finance, energy, water, transport, buildings, and agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the tl;dr is the patterns are all identical<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The challenges as large and (really) nothing to do with web technology, despite all the hype. The likelihood of making outcomes good, or mediocre, are the same in every sector I\u2019ve engaged with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, with climate, mediocre means \u2018absolutely catastrophically terrible\u2019<\/em>. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDon\u2019t let the perfect be the enemy of the good\u201d Oft-cited to help motivate us to get on with making something. But what happens when we\u2019re not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stuff"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dgen.net\/0\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/good-mediocre.webp","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfJFK3-1XH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dgen.net\/0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dgen.net\/0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dgen.net\/0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dgen.net\/0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dgen.net\/0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7545"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dgen.net\/0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7549,"href":"https:\/\/dgen.net\/0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7545\/revisions\/7549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dgen.net\/0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dgen.net\/0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dgen.net\/0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dgen.net\/0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The challenges<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
(1) We need to start somewhere so let\u2019s create some approximations that look like things we already do<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
(2) Let\u2019s start by gathering all the data in one place<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
(3) We know this is a global issue but we need to create something centralised to start with so we can control it<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Part of the solution is to think differently about the market architecture for a data-enabled future<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What else?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
(see the solid black line)<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dgen.net\/0\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/climate-1024x550.webp\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"