The Linux Foundation announced that it will launch an LF Climate Finance Foundation initiative to encourage investment in AI-enhanced open source analytics to address climate change. Task number one: build an “OS-Climate” risk modeling platform for investors.

As the world grapples with pressing issues such as Covid-19, the climate continues to grow hotter and more unstable, with record-breaking heat waves, fires, storms, floods, and sea level rise. New technologies will be required to avoid catastrophe, not only in clean energy, efficiency, and carbon mitigation, but also in analyzing climate-related risk and opportunities. To address these issues the Linux Foundation is launching the LF Climate Finance Foundation (LFCF) initiative and a new OS-Climate platform.

The LFCF is tasked with empowering investors, banks, insurers, companies, governments, NGOs, and academia with AI-enhanced open source analytics and open data to address climate risk and opportunity. Founding members include Allianz, Amazon, Microsoft, and S&P Global, and the planning team includes representatives from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Ceres, and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB).

The LFCF plans to build and host an OS-Climate platform to enable asset owners, asset managers and banks to manage climate risk. The platform will help identify climate-aligned companies, infrastructure, capital projects, and technologies that will thrive in a low-carbon economy.

Built around the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, OS-Climate will comprise “multiple physical and economic scenarios” and a global and open Data Commons. The platform will integrate economic and financial models that accelerate predictive analytic tools and investment products that manage climate-related risk and finance climate solutions, says the Linux Foundation.

Investors and banks could use OS-Climate to analyze portfolios and individual financing and investments, says the LF. Governments are expected to use it to invest in resilient infrastructure, develop effective policy and enable regulators to manage market-related climate risk.

 
Science-Based Targets Initiative integration

With the help of Ortec Finance, OS-Climate is already incorporating a beta version of an open source Finance Tool contributed by the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi). The LFCF plans to undertake community-based development to further build out the tool.

“The LF Climate Finance Foundation can make the OS-Climate Platform a vital tool to …boost investment not only for addressing climate change but also for protecting biodiversity,” stated Monique Barbut, former CEO of the global environment facility and former UN undersecretary.

 
Further information

More information on the LF Climate Finance Foundation and OS-Climate may be found in the Linux Foundation’s announcement and OS-Climate website.