Page 107 - Carbon Capitalism and Communication Confronting Climate Crisis

7 BIG DATA, OPEN DATA AND THE CLIMATE RISK MARKET 93

Despite the observed efforts to leverage big data and new forms of data
analytics in order to extract economic value from climatic uncertainty, the
above arguments suggest that business as usual appears to no longer be an
option in the longer term. Of course, while the argument for moving
beyond growth as a measure of economic success might be relatively easy
to conclude at the abstract level, the actual process of transition towards a
new mode of economic development is more fraught and, of course,
deeply political.

CONCLUSIONS
It is evident that various forms of power—including informational power—
are being deployed in the development and promotion of climate risk
products which, in part, aim to respond to the uncertainties posed by
climate change. It is also apparent that these products benefit established
interests, while, perhaps in some cases unintentionally, deepening the
threats faced by the majority, particularly the most vulnerable in society. In
the case of the UK government’s efforts to open significant amounts of
public meteorological data in an effort to leverage the development of the
UK’s climate risk market, we can observe an example of data policy being
used by a government in an attempt to promote a deeply neoliberal,
market-driven response to the conditions of uncertainty that we are facing
in the early twenty first century.
These developments in data analytics and policy are being shaped to
enable particular forms of response to conditions of uncertainty. Still, it
would be problematic to argue that increased rights to access and use
weather data, and the development of new data analytics techniques are
something to be resisted—information is, after all, also necessary for those
seeking to establish sustainable, democratic and ecologically sound political
economies. However, significant questions remain unanswered about the
societal and ecological impacts of climate risk markets, particularly in
relation to their potential to disincentivise economically powerful actors’
engagement in climate change mitigation activity, and the socio-economic
implications of empowering financial elites’ efforts to exploit deepening
climate uncertainty. There is therefore a need to open up a debate about
these forms of financialisation and think critically about how they might,
and might not, impact wider efforts to respond to climate change and build
more equal and inclusive societies.