This policy report is part of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose’s (UCL IIPP) publication series.
Explore more working papers and policy reports here.
A Bottom-Up Approach to Building a Climate Resilience Stack | Policy Report No. 2025/08.
Authors:
- David Eaves | Co-Deputy Director and Associate Professor in Digital Government, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
- Beatriz Vasconcellos | Research Fellow, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
- Richard Gevers
- Liam Orme | Research Assistant, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
Executive Summary:
This policy report proposes a ‘climate resilience stack’ framework to assist digital and climate leaders in developing collective capabilities to sense, respond, and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Our guiding hypothesis is that stacks emerge from existing digital infrastructure and tools. Recognising that priorities, context, operational needs, and resources vary, there is no one climate resilience stack. However, there is likely to be a set of common components. This policy report maps essential functions and capabilities that could form the basis for climate resilience stacks, as well as potential components and selection criteria that can support their development.
Our core claim is that any climate resilience stack should be demand-driven, not supply-driven. Demand is shaped by stakeholder needs and creates feedback mechanisms that can help mobilize public, private, and non-profit resources to support ongoing development. To support the creation of this shared digital infrastructure, public policy and investment should drive convergence towards emerging ‘de facto’ digital standards, rather than defining and provisioning new ‘de jure’ standards which compete with solutions that have established demand.
Recommendations, roles, and priorities
- Product leads: maximise reuse and interoperability via emerging standards.
- Governments: invest in open solutions, tie procurement to emerging standards.
- Implementers: steward the ecosystem, choose existing open solutions over bespoke.
- Funders: prioritise projects using open solutions and sustainable digital public goods.
Reference:
Eaves, D., Vasconcellos, B., Gevers, R., and Orme, L. (2025). A Bottom-Up Approach to Building a Climate Resilience Stack. UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. IIPP Policy Report 2025/08.
Available at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/publications/2025/nov/bottom-approach-building-climate-resilience-stack
This policy report is part of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose’s (UCL IIPP) publication series.
Explore more working papers and policy reports here.