Regional Capabilities to Tackle Climate Change: Setting a Research Agenda for Big Data Driven Tools

Finding innovative solutions for solving climate change is at the heart of contemporary policy debates. While it is easy to agree on the importance of tackling climate change, very little is known how regional policymakers can actually facilitate sustainable development via innovative solutions. The contemporary mission-oriented policy approaches do not take into account the territorial differences in the capability of regions to solve climate change. Therefore, there is a lack of knowledge on how to assess which types of solutions to climate change a given region should focus on. Knowing their capacity for solving climate change would help the regions in the smart allocation of resources. This paper engages with this under-researched issue by suggesting big data driven methods for regional policymakers.