Open Data and Climate/Sustainable Development (FR0028)
Overview
At-a-Glance
Action Plan: France, First Action Plan, 2015-2017
Action Plan Cycle: 2015
Status:
Institutions
Lead Institution: Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy; Minister of State for State Reform and Simplification attached to the Prime Minister
Support Institution(s): NA
Policy Areas
Access to Information, Energy, Open DataIRM Review
IRM Report: France End-of-Term Report 2015-2017, France Mid-Term Progress Report 2015-2017
Early Results: Marginal
Design i
Verifiable: No
Relevant to OGP Values: Yes
Ambition (see definition): Low
Implementation i
Description
STAKES Opening data and models related to climate and sustainable development will serve to: • Educate and raise awareness of citizens concerning climate issues, with data visualizations or applications, which could illustrate the major challenges regarding climate (to be used by journalists, researchers and all interested actors) • Support civil society representatives and NGOs positions • Stimulate economic and social innovation and allow third-parties to develop innovative solutions to climate challenges.
CONTEXT & AIM A document was published in November 2014 on the occasion of the Environmental Conference to prepare the 2015 roadmap that the Government will use to define the national application of the contribution of the European Union to the universal agreement on climate. This document states (Point 56) that "in order to mobilize players of digital civil society, researchers and media, the government will open datasets relating to the topics debate. They will be published on data.gouv.fr several months before the 2015 Paris Climate Conference. It will encourage its foreign partners to do likewise".
ROADMAP
• Provide on the platform data.gouv.fr data, models and simulators regarding climate, energy transition and sustainable development
• Release and publish data from impact assessment studies realized by the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy
IRM End of Term Status Summary
25. Open Data and Models Related to Climate and Sustainable Development
Commitment Text:
ROADMAP
• Provide on the platform data.gouv.fr data, models and simulators regarding climate, energy transition and sustainable development
• Release and publish data from impact assessment studies realized by the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy
Editorial Note: This is a partial version of the commitment text. For the full commitment text please see France's national action plan: https://bit.ly/2MTYhsR.
Responsible Institutions: Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy; Minister of State for State Reform and Simplification attached to the Prime Minister
Supporting Institution(s): N/A
Start Date:Not Specified
End Date: December 2015
Commitment Aim
This commitment aimed to raise awareness of climate issues using open data to produce current and informative data visualisations paired with a new range of datasets, as well as providing opportunities for third parties to suggest solutions to climate challenges, using this newly-released data.
It includes two activities: 1) provide models regarding climate and sustainable development on the government open data platform; and 2) publish data from impact assessment studies carried out by the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy.
Status
Midterm: Substantial
This commitment was substantially implemented by the midterm. Out of the 500 datasets on climate, energy and sustainable development that were supposed to be published to data.gouv.fr according to the government self-assessment, the midterm assessment found 27 of these datasets were tagged as 'climate,' 81 datasets as 'energy,' and 52 datasets were tagged as “sustainable development.” If other datasets related to those three topics exist, they were said to be difficult to identify. Météo France published its models on data.gouv.fr and its own platform, donneespubliques.meteofrance.fr, providing prediction and atmospheric forecasting models and simulators. 458 datasets were compiled on the government's open data portal for the Climate Change Challenge and were presented during a series of hackathons, which Etalab helped organise. As of July 2016, data on air quality models was missing from the platform.
End of Term: Substantial
Completion of this commitment is still coded as substantial at the end of term. The most significant development in the second year of implementation was the adoption of the law on biodiversity n° 2016-1087 on 8 August 2016.
The government self-assessment reports that raw data from impact studies should be transferred to the Museum of Natural History and published in open data format. The IRM researcher however finds the law (Article 7) to have a slightly different meaning, namely that raw data on biodiversity, gathered by project managers – public or private – during an impact assessment shall be included in the national inventory of natural heritage, managed and validated by the Museum of Natural History. The IRM researcher could not find any public information on the publication of this data. The law on biodiversity also created the French Agency on Biodiversity, but it is not clear how this agency is relevant to OGP values.
In October 2017, there were 33 datasets tagged 'climate,' 83 datasets tagged 'energy,' and 97 datasets tagged “sustainable development.” The government self-assessment indicates that data on air quality should be available on data.gouv.fr. The IRM researcher finds that the information provided through the data.gouv.fr link consists only of a map of air quality in metropolitan France and that no dataset was available. Information is provided by PREV'AIR, the national platform on air quality prevision.
Did It Open Government?
Access to Information: Marginal
This commitment opened a number of new datasets on climate and sustainable development. However, the relevance of the data opened in the framework of this commitment remains unclear. As such, this commitment marginally opened government regarding access to information.
Despite the new datasets available on data.gouv.fr in open data format, the lack of specificity of this commitment's activities and the difficulty of measuring resulting changes in government practices limits the impact of the commitment, as pointed out in the midterm IRM assessment. Moreover, the IRM researcher could not find any public information on the criteria and logic of selection of data to be publish, nor on the regularity of which the data should be updated.
Carried Forward?
This commitment was carried forward to the next action plan. In the new action plan, the commitment focuses on making an inventory of the data produced by the Ministry of Ecological Transition and by the Ministry of Territorial Cohesion; on opening new data on waste management, construction permits, pesticide sales; and on giving public access to data on environmental impact.