Background

The path so far

The initiative Digital Climate Innovation (DCI), formerly known as Climate Ledger Initiative (CLI) started out of a research project called «CarbonBC» of the Zurich-based Cleantech21 (C21) foundation at the international climate negotiations in November 2016 in Marrakesh (COP 22). Starting in December 2016, C21 performed a series of interviews and workshops co-funded by the LIFE Climate Foundation Liechtenstein. Early 2017, INFRAS joined as lead consultant. In June 2017, the Gold Standard Foundation joined the CLI Programme Management Group. During the workshops and team meetings, 5 use cases were selected and financed by Climate-KIC, the EU’s largest public private partnership addressing climate change through innovation.

In 2018, the first flagship report «Navigating Digital Innovation for Climate action» (formerly called «Navigating Blochain and Climate Action») was published. And in 2019, Climate-KIC supported a first round of use cases and fostered the work on developing approaches to digitizing MRV.

For the period 2019 – 2023, CLI was financed by SDC allowing to develop concrete use cases, capture learnings in knowledge products and provide an international platform for policy makers, technology developers and stakeholders to work at the intersection between digital innovation and climate action.

In 2024, the CLI was renamed Digital Climate Innovation (DCI) in order to better capture the essence of the initiative that goes beyond ledgers or blockchains and looks at various digital technologies and innovations for climate action. In addition, it also marks a new phase leaving the more general awareness-raising work of the initial years behind and focusing on the practical implementation and scaling of digital approaches with our partners in specific areas of climate action and seeking impact.