2025-11-18 –, Main Room
This proposal examines the growing geopolitical potential of open-source and digital public infrastructure (DPI) in advancing climate resilience and environmental governance. It draws on ongoing research conducted through my current fellowship at ITS Rio and supported by ECDPM, where I lead the centre’s work on Brazil in the context of digital sovereignty and international partnerships.
The study builds on my prior contributions to ECDPM’s work on sovereign digital infrastructure, including the report From India Stack to EuroStack, and my role as co-designer and moderator of the 2024 Paris event “How Do We Stack Up?” (Sciences Po / ECDPM / Bertelsmann Stiftung), which convened leading voices on democratic models of digital infrastructure.
Just as India has helped shape the global conversation around DPI for financial inclusion, and Europe is advancing debates on technological sovereignty through initiatives like EuroStack, Brazil is well placed to lead the emerging agenda on DPI for climate, particularly through its space-earth observation capacities. From platforms like the Cadastro Ambiental Rural (CAR), INPE’s DETER deforestation alerts, and MapBiomas’s collaborative open-data initiative, Brazil’s digital public goods showcase how sovereign, transparent infrastructures can support environmental action at scale.
This research highlights significant potential for international partnerships, especially between Brazil and the European Union. Synergies with the EU’s Copernicus programme (Europe’s flagship earth observation initiative) offer a concrete pathway to align open digital cooperation with climate monitoring, biodiversity protection, and green transition goals. In parallel, Brazil’s leadership could underpin broader alliances with democratic partners such as India, South Africa, and others committed to a multipolar, open, and climate-oriented digital future. In the lead-up to COP30, this moment offers an opening to reimagine climate leadership through shared digital infrastructures.
Just as India has helped shape the global conversation around DPI for financial inclusion, and Europe is advancing debates on technological sovereignty through initiatives like EuroStack, Brazil is well placed to lead the emerging agenda on DPI for climate, particularly through its space-earth observation capacities. From platforms like the Cadastro Ambiental Rural (CAR), INPE’s DETER deforestation alerts, and MapBiomas’s collaborative open-data initiative, Brazil’s digital public goods showcase how sovereign, transparent infrastructures can support environmental action at scale.
This ongoing research examines the growing geopolitical potential of open source and digital public infrastructure (DPI) in advancing climate resilience and environmental governance. The paper highlights significant potential for international partnerships, especially between Brazil and the European Union. Synergies with the EU’s Copernicus programme (Europe’s flagship earth observation initiative) offer a concrete pathway to align open digital cooperation with climate monitoring, biodiversity protection, and green transition goals. In parallel, Brazil’s leadership could underpin broader alliances with democratic partners such as India, South Africa, and others committed to a multipolar, open, and climate-oriented digital future. In the lead-up to COP30, this moment offers an opening to reimagine climate leadership through shared digital infrastructures.
Raphaël is a political analyst and public innovation expert with 20+ years of experience across more than 20 countries. He leads ECDPM’s work on Brazil’s digital public infrastructure and has co-authored recent reports on tech sovereignty and open-source governance. He is also currently working on a broad mapping of national and regional DPIs in the East Africa Community. A fluent Portuguese speaker and 2024 graduate of the AI4GOV Master’s in Artificial Intelligence for Public Services, he also lectures at Sciences Po Paris on “Open Government and Democratic Innovations in the Age of AI.” Raphaël was France’s national lead with Democratic Society for climate policy design under the NetZeroCities action framework. He is also the co-founder of Plurall.cc (Paris-Kigali) a consultancy collective that helps turn policy challenges into opportunities for sustainable, community-driven digital infrastructures. He is a 2025 Fellow at ITS RIO (Institute for Technology and Society).