Paths Forward for Integrative Climate, Nature, and Economic Reporting

Overview

The Data Foundation invited Data Coalition Members to join us on Tuesday, July 14, 1:00 - 2:00 pm ET for a virtual members-only roundtable, "Paths Forward for Integrative Climate, Nature, and Economic Reporting" with Ken Bagstad, Data Foundation Center for Climate and Environmental Data (CCED) Senior Fellow. Bagstad presented at the 2026 Data Summit, and this roundtable will be a continuation of his symposium presentation, "Trusted, timely, and fit-for-purpose: Paths forward for integrative climate, nature, and economic reporting."

While demand for reliable nature data to inform economic, planning, and land use decisions has never been greater, today’s underlying, fragmented data systems fail to meet decision makers' needs. In this talk, Ken Bagstad will describe some of the barriers to more seamlessly aligning nature, climate, and economic data, including semantic heterogeneity of data and inconsistent descriptions of fit-for-purpose that limit the proper reuse of data. Opportunities exist to address those barriers, including through careful application of AI tools. Doing so can help to move nature data toward investor-grade quality: data consistent and auditable enough to support financial risk assessment, capital allocation, policy evaluation, and credible disclosure at scale.

Ken Bagstad is a Senior Fellow at the Data Foundation's Center for Climate and Environmental Data (previously Climate Data Collaborative). He has led efforts in the U.S. and globally to design and implement standard practices for natural capital accounting and environmental-economic statistics, putting the economic value provided by nature on balance sheets for governments and businesses. His career includes 14 years at the U.S. Geological Survey, where he coordinated efforts spanning 27 Federal agencies and over 100 technical staff to develop and report on the diverse contributions of ecosystems and natural resources to the U.S. economy. Bagstad has served as a senior technical advisor for international organizations including the World Bank and the United Nations. His work also focuses on semantic interoperability for environmental and economic data and models, which offer improved transparency, replicability, and timeliness for computational workflows, in particular through a long-standing collaboration on the Artificial Intelligence for Environment and Sustainability (ARIES) Project. He holds a Ph.D. in natural resources and ecological economics from the University of Vermont.

Special note: This event is open to Data Coalition Members only. To learn more about membership, please visit our Data Coalition webpage or write to coalition@datafoundation.org.

If you are a member, please log in to the Data Coalition member portal to register for this event. If you experience any issues or have any questions, please reach out to: Jenna Marthaller, Data Coalition Member Engagement Manager: jenna.marthaller@datafoundation.org