Accelerating the Green Transition with Digital Public Infrastructure

Partners: UNDP
November 16, 2024, 11:00-12:30
UNDP Pavilion

‘Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for a Green Transition’ is a research, advocacy and convening initiative that UNDP is undertaking with support from The Rockefeller Foundation, and in collaboration with Co-Develop, World Bank, USAID, DIAL, GIZ and the Coalition for Digital Environmental Sustainability, to explore the role of DPI in addressing climate change, nature degradation and climate-induced vulnerabilities. By bringing together a diverse range of key stakeholders, the initiative seeks to build a roadmap for DPI that can scale nature and climate action.  

UNDP and partners view DPI as a critical enabler of digital transformation that can help improve public service delivery at scale. When designed and implemented well, DPI can assist countries in achieving their national priorities and accelerating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. DPI is seen as the digital equivalent of traditional infrastructure like roads and utilities – essential for the functioning of modern societies and the delivery of services in the digital age. It goes beyond just hardware and software, encompassing governance, partnerships, and community engagement required for public benefit.  

The concept of a ‘Nature ID’ is broadly inspired by recent successes in deploying digital ID systems for individual citizens in several countries. The deployment of digital ID systems at population scale, along with other components of DPI such as instant payment systems, has enabled public services to become more widely accessible and has accelerated the financial inclusion of previously marginalised and vulnerable sections of society. Taking an infrastructure approach in this context has enabled biometrics-based digital IDs to serve as a common and interoperable means of verification for citizens and individuals to access and benefit from a wide range of innovative digital services offered by public and private sector entities.  

Similarly, the ability to monitor, verify and quantify the health, identity and value of spatially defined natural assets such as forests and wetlands from an ecosystem perspective could be supported by a digital ‘Nature ID’ system serving as connective tissue between geospatial, environmental and administrative data, encompassing factors such as soil health, carbon sequestration and more. This could unlock access for countries to a wide range of nature-positive incentives such as green bonds and carbon credits and nature-based solutions such as coastal habitat protection projects – critical to biodiversity conservation and climate resilience at a systemic level. This infrastructure would also need to be designed to recognise and safeguard the interests and rights of key stakeholders and legally recognised stewards of natural assets, including Indigenous Peoples.

Innovative climate and environmental financing mechanisms are emerging in response to the ‘triple planetary crisis’, which rest on a vision for widening access to green finance and sharing the benefits of an inclusive system with the most vulnerable people, such as marginalized farmers, indigenous communities and informal workers. However, digital solutions for emerging mechanisms such as Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) to scale at a national or international level still don’t exist. Part of the reason is that efficient contract management and transfer of payments to individuals and communities have to be validated with often complex international and national standards. Similarly, in countries that are heavily reliant on commodities such as cocoa or coffee, inadequate data or transparency on farmland and agricultural inputs leads to actors across the agricultural value chain duplicating data collection, which can disadvantage small landholders and farmers. 

Nature ID as a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) represents an innovative solution to address the challenges of scaling climate and environmental financing mechanisms, such as Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), by providing a transparent and efficient system for validating and authenticating environmental benefits.  

This event will explore how a ‘Nature ID’ as DPI can facilitate coordinated action among multiple stakeholders to drive progress on climate and biodiversity goals at the national level, enhance climate transparency, increase access to green finance, and address climate change-induced vulnerabilities.