C40 Cities Continues To Advance Climate Action By Harnessing Data With Qlik

This looming reality is an important driver behind the partnership between Qlik and C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40). C40 is a global nonprofit that connects 97 of the world’s largest and most influential cities, representing 700+ million citizens and one quarter of the global economy. Both our company and C40 are committed to using data to keep cities and the world from reaching that threshold of 1.5°C.

As partners, we are committed to beating back the perception that nothing can be done. Something can be done. One avenue for action is harnessing data and the power of Qlik, often in partnership with groups like C40, to achieve impact. Here are some of the ways C40 is using its partnership with Qlik to show the way forward.

High Impact Assessment (HIA) Dashboard

Using Qlik solutions, C40 has created dashboards to enable the organization and its member cities to advance their climate action goals.

One dashboard, known as the High Impact Assessment (HIA) Dashboard, equips C40 and member cities to assess city climate action trends across regions and sectors (e.g. transportation, infrastructure, commercial construction, waste management), and compare them against 2030 targets. It also allows C40 to identify high-performing cities that may be able to share lessons with peers, as well as those cities that may need additional support.

C40 then uses the information and insights gathered from the dashboard to offer member cities its relevant networks and technical assistance programs. In addition, the HIA dashboard allows C40’s funders to examine how well C40 is accomplishing its own goals of encouraging and supporting cities to tackle climate change.

Engagement and Leadership Dashboards

A major strength of C40 is its meshwork of well-developed peer-to-peer knowledge transfer groups. This empowers cities to learn from one another, rapidly adopt successful strategies, and avoid misspending scarce resources on the wrong technologies or policies. But these networks rely on active engagement from participants, so C40 works hard to ensure the right mix of cities are in place.

To do so, C40 has developed an Engagement Dashboard using Qlik Sense. It ensures that cities at the forefront of specific topics actively share successes and learn from other cities – such as documenting best practices, presenting at webinars, or directly mentoring other cities. The dashboard helps staff proactively recruit experts and react to questions from cities undertaking due diligence. It also helps C40 avoid overburdening any one city with requests for information, and distribute support more equitably.

“Cities have to manage so many issues right now, particularly with the impact of COVID-19 and the opportunity to foster a green and just recovery,” notes Jared Pruzan, who leads Knowledge Management at C40. “If we can build simple tools that make our resources more efficient and respect our cities’ time constraints, we can help all our members succeed on their climate priorities.”

In addition to the engagement dashboards, C40 has also developed a Leadership Dashboard: a visualization tool that allows cities see how they are performing against regional and economic peers, based on C40’s public membership criteria.

“Cities can all perform well in different ways, and the Leadership Dashboard allows us and cities themselves to quickly see where they are succeeding, and where they can choose to do more, in order to take full advantage of what C40 has to offer,” said Pruzan.

C40 Recruiting Cities in UNFCCC Race To Zero Campaign

To deepen its commitment to reducing climate change, C40 has become part of a consortium, including the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, World Resources Institute, ICLEI, CDP, WWF, and UCLG, charged with recruiting as many cities as possible to the UNFCCC Race to Zero campaign.

Race to Zero itself is a broader, global campaign from the UNFCCC to rally leadership and support from businesses, cities, regions and investors for a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery that prevents future threats, creates decent jobs, as well as unlocks inclusive, sustainable growth.

C40 has established a Qlik-powered dashboard to aid partners in the consortium to better address the needs of cities in the campaign.

“Our own internal systems allow us to analyze if we’re maximizing our impact with our members. This dashboard extends that capability to our partners, helping us organize, recruit and support city participation in the Cities Race to Zero,” said Pruzan.

Maximizing Impact and Harnessing Data to Encourage Action

Maximizing impact and extending reach are at the core of Qlik’s partnership with C40. So is a desire to promote an environment of action and possibility. We firmly believe we are not living in an impending doomsday scenario or an inescapable ecological apocalypse. C40’s work is not a wakeup call but a continued, earnest, passionate dialogue that empowers cities, and drives meaningful, measurable and sustainable action on climate change.