How does the growing availability of novel data interact with the uses of data by policymakers in city-regions on their journey to net zero?

The net zero (NZ) agenda is one of the foremost planetary challenges facing urban policymakers - presenting both localised impacts, along with transnational co-operation and governance challenges. Data is fundamental to measuring policy success and failure and taking informed intervention decisions, and global Earth Observation data has enhanced evidence bases in terms of where local actions are needed. In the face of evolving national politics, it is common for city-regions to lead on NZ policy. However, the distribution of multi-level powers and resources fundamentally shapes what urban leaders can do and who they need to work with to respond to the climate emergency. Given this complex policy architecture, progress towards NZ is dependent on the effective use of data. Many intermediate city-regions need support to build capacity and marshal data effectively, and questions about which data sources to deploy at specific contexts can be difficult to resolve. This leads to the possibility for a gap between the sophistication of data which may be able to support policymakers – increasingly available from breakthrough techniques and modelling – and capability, governance and communication issues in subnational policymakers’ ability to act. Starting with the end users of data at city-region level, we explore the need for better understanding between the policy and data/science communities.