Climate Action

Sustainable Development Goal 13

A large green leaf covered in water beads

"Impacts of climate change also includes flooding and drought, displacing millions of people, sinking them into poverty and hunger, denying them access to basic services, such as health and education, expanding inequalities, stifling economic growth and even causing conflict." —United Nations (un.org)

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals—adopted by all United Nations member states—serve as a blueprint to protect the planet and improve the lives of all people, with no one left behind.

Sustainable Development Goal or SDG 13 provides a path to combat climate change and its impacts.

An animated globe that appears to breathe between land cover and ice

Breathing Earth by John Nelson, Esri

The United Nations established targets for achieving and measuring progress towards SDG 13 including:

  • Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning
  • Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning
  • Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries

Sample stories

Explore place-based stories, created with  ArcGIS StoryMaps , that highlight the impacts of climate change and GIS tools that can help.

Hot numbers

by Esri

Discover twelve numbers that explain the negative impacts of climate change on our coastlines, farms, wildlife, and more .

Earth's biggest storms: tropical cyclones

by Esri

Learn about tropical cyclones and how they affect the people and environment in their paths.

Nelson climate adaptation

See how one local coastal community uses GIS to visualize the potential impacts of sea level rise.

Discovering patterns in global wildfires

by Esri

Examine patterns in global wildfires using data from NASA satellite fire data.

Data sources

Access a few data sources and apps behind the sample stories and consider ways to tell your own SDG 13 narrative.

Fire Information for Resource Management System

 NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System  or FIRMS uses satellite observations to detect active fires and thermal anomalies and deliver this information in near real-time.

Climate Mapping for Resilience and Adaptation

The  Climate Mapping for Resilience and Adaptation , an inter-agency government portal, provides real-time data about U.S. climate hazards.

Explore U.S. hurricane forecast and demographic impact information as well as storm track information globally with  Esri's Hurricane Aware App  below.

Hurricane Aware App

Explore more data sets in  Esri's Living Atlas of the World , a collection of maps, apps, and data layers from around the globe.

Learning resources

Get hands-on experience with SDG 13 geospatial data through Esri learning materials. Then build your storytelling skills with ArcGIS StoryMaps tutorials, for beginners and beyond.

About the Storytelling for a Sustainable World collection

The  Storytelling for a Sustainable World collection  was created as a storytelling resource for the Global Councils on the SDGs. The collection, which includes one story for each United Nations Sustainable Development Goal, will assist the Global Councils as they work to ensure progress toward the global goals. Each SDG story includes topical sample stories, relevant data sets, and learning resources to get started.

Breathing Earth by John Nelson, Esri