German research institutions have begun copying United States climate datasets into German repositories, led by the German Climate Computing Center in Hamburg, according to a new feature by Christian Schwägerl in Yale Environment 360.
More on the Effort
The German Research Foundation has committed roughly $35 million to establish several secure repositories, under projects named CMIP7-ark and SHIELD. The stated purpose is to keep the datasets needed for the 2029 United Nations climate assessment available regardless of what becomes of the American originals.
The article attributes the effort to reductions in U.S. federal climate research funding, the removal of climate reports from government websites, and proposed defunding of observatories. It quotes Kathrin Winkler of the German Research Foundation as saying that “the deletion of data has also become a possibility.”
Among the records identified as at risk are NASA’s Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center and the continuous carbon dioxide measurements at the Mauna Loa Observatory — the Keeling curve, the longest direct record of atmospheric carbon dioxide in existence.
Direct Link to Why Germany Is Building an Ark for U.S. Climate Data
https://e360.yale.edu/features/germany-us-climate-data
Summarized from reporting by Christian Schwägerl published in Yale Environment 360, 17 September 2026.