The Systems Change Lab data platform is a tool designed to track global progress toward climate, nature and equity goals.
Within each system, we track more than 70 critical shifts, with indicators that assess progress toward targets and enable or prevent change. Click through the accordions below to learn how to navigate through the platform, what information you can find, and how you can use our insights.
- On Systems Change Lab, we track progress across 15 major systems.
These systems are similar to what we often call sectors, like industry, food and finance.
System pages are landing pages that provide a one-stop shop of everything you need to know about a system and its transformations. These pages feature data highlights, a summary of the current state of the system and links to navigate to each of the system’s shifts. Start exploring a system page by hovering over “systems” in the navigation bar and clicking a system name.
- For each system on the platform, we have developed a set of critical transformations — what we call shifts.
These shifts are necessary for achieving our goals of mitigating climate change, protecting biodiversity and improving equity. These shifts range from phasing out unabated coal and fossil gas electricity generation, to restoring deforested and degraded lands, to securing and upholding civil liberties and rights.
Shift pages detail the role that the shift can play in transforming the system and include in-depth charts of every indicator. Visit a shift page by hovering over “systems” in the navigation bar, hovering over a system name and then clicking a shift name. Alternatively, you can reach a shift via its relevant system page or our systems and shifts page, which is a comprehensive list of every system and shift we track.
- To measure progress in achieving each shift, we identify outcome indicators and enabler and barrier indicators.
Outcome indicators measure progress toward global scientific targets to help indicate what specific changes are needed for each shift to occur. For each outcome indicator, we identify global targets that show what is needed to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F), protect biodiversity and improve equity, depending on the indicator in question. We assess recent efforts toward near-term and long-term targets, categorizing them as right direction, on track; right direction, off track; right direction, well off track; right direction, no target; wrong direction; or insufficient data. More information on why indicators may have insufficient data is available on our data gaps page. View outcome indicators on shift pages or filter them in the data dashboard.
Enablers and barriers help us understand the underlying conditions that can accelerate or impede change. These indicators fall within one of the following categories: innovations in technology, practices and approaches; leadership from change agents; regulation and incentives; strong institutions; and behavior change and shifts in social norms.
Similar to the outcome indicators, you can view enablers and barriers on shift pages or filter for them in the data dashboard.
Visit the data dashboard to see an overview of global progress or find specific indicators of interest. The pinwheel view shows the status of outcome indicators for all of our published systems, and the grid view allows you to search specific terms or filter by system, country or area, indicator type and status.
Use Cases
- What you can find on Systems Change Lab.
Systems Change Lab brings critical data and analysis on the world’s major systems to one place. For example:
- If you’re interested in the big picture: Visit the systems and shifts page to see all 15 systems and 70+ shifts, as well as an overview of global progress toward targets. You can also explore the data dashboard pinwheel view for a picture of progress across outcome indicators.
- If you’re looking for information about a particular sector: Start by exploring a system page (e.g., Transport, Circular Economy, Finance) to learn about what’s needed to transform them and achieve climate, nature and equity goals, and check out our latest news and events.
- If you’re interested in understanding global progress toward 2030 targets: Explore a shift page to review global targets, compare current action against targets and understand the scale required to get on track. Our data dashboard also allows you to sort indicators by status, helping you find where action is advancing or lagging the most.
- If you’re looking for specific data points or country-level data: Use the search bar and filters on our data dashboard to find indicators by name, system, type or country for those indicators with country-level data.
- How to use Systems Change Lab in your work.
We created Systems Change Lab to provide everyone with data and insights to understand the pace of global progress and drive equitable systems change at scale. Some intended uses include:
- Understanding Systems Change: Our research assesses system transformations and highlights specific shifts, levers of change and gaps in action that can unlock catalytic progress — providing a framework that can inform theories of change, priorities and strategies. Use Systems Change Lab’s shifts, outcomes and enablers as a reference when directing limited resources in pursuit of maximum impact.
- Setting Targets: Use Systems Change Lab’s outcome indicators to identify what an ambitious target looks like to inform the level of ambition for national, subnational, corporate and financial targets.
- Tracking Progress: Use Systems Change Lab’s indicators to track the broader trends your work may be contributing to.
- Messaging: Leverage Systems Change Lab’s compelling evidence, data and messaging to support effective communication and advocacy for action to drive systems change.
- Inspiring Rapid Change: Use our data analysis to understand exactly how rapid change can and has occurred and get inspiration for what might be possible.
Do you have a use case that isn’t represented here or a story about using Systems Change Lab you’d like to share? We would love to hear from you! Send an email to contact@systemschangelab.org.