Enabling systems change (continued) Driving collective action Successful strategies, interventions, and approaches to improve ecosystem health require a great deal of data and collaboration across public and private sectors, as well as civil society. We are taking an ecosystem approach to ecosystems, creating or broadening our relationships to provide more people with better access to this critical information. UN Biodiversity Lab In 2021, we launched a new partnership with the UN Biodiversity Lab to help connect remote observations, fi eld data, and AI/machine learning tools. This work, powered by the Planetary Computer, will enable countries to develop richer environmental accounts and drive better environmental decision-making. GEO BON Fostering global connections and collaboration will be critical to address climate change. In the past year, we broadened our work with the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) to connect with a global network of scientists to enable a scalable approach to expanding and accessing biodiversity information and insights. CSIRO We’re supporting CSIRO in Australia to establish a climate intelligence platform that puts trusted and credible climate risk science in the hands of businesses in Australia and the Asia region and enables them to assess, disclose, and manage their climate risks. In addition, together with CSIRO and the University of Reading, we have developed a research partnership to improve our understanding and assessment of climate change risk. Radiant Earth The Rad i ant Earth Foundation develops Earth observation machine learning libraries and models through an open-source hub to support global missions like agriculture, conservation, and climate change. We support Radiant Earth by co-building some of the key software libraries, making it easy to bridge to and from the Planetary Computer. We are also jointly running competitions to improve machine learning models. OS-Climate We continue to support the OS-Climate initiative, which is accelerating the development of scenario- based predictive analytic tools and investment products that manage climate-related risk and finance climate solutions across every geography, sector, and asset class. Microsoft is a founding member, contributes our expertise on climate risk and data, and provides additional technology support for the development of new tools and approaches. C4IR In 2020, Microsoft joined the World Economic Forum’s Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network for ocean innovation and technology in Norway (C4IR Ocean). Since then, we have expanded our work with a new project that has us working with C4IR Ocean to deliver a tracking application for maritime vessels to forecast GHG emissions from maritime transportation. This information is made available through C4IR’s Ocean Data Platform for regulators, finance institutions, and port and coastal authorities to enable data- driven decisions related to the environmental impact of shipping. Successful strategies to improve ecosystem health require data and collaboration across public and private sectors. Advocating for healthy ecosystems and biodiversity Governments play a unique and important role in measuring and managing ecosystems and biodiversity as they collect and make publicly available massive amounts of data critical to environmental science. They also own billions of acres of public land that they can use to protect, manage, and restore critical ecosystems. And they establish and implement policies governing the use and management of natural resources and ecosystems. Advocating for policies that advance measuring and managing biodiversity and ecosystems Microsoft submitted comments to the USDA on ways to advance climate-smart agriculture and forestry. Microsoft is advocating for the US Congress to pass the Growing Climate Solution Act to advance climate-smart agriculture and nature-based carbon markets. In addition, Microsoft supported funding in the Washington state budget to develop high- quality nature-based carbon removal protocols. Microsoft serves on the steering committee of the US chapter of Trillion Trees and submitted one of the initial corporate pledges. We have been working with the organizers on ways to design the initiative in a way that accelerates reforestation and meaningfully removes carbon. In Europe, Microsoft supported and engaged on the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, that aims to increase protected areas across the EU and to identify new measures for managing and restoring ecosystems. Microsoft also committed to support a new dedicated “European Biodiversity Partnership,” Biodiversa+ , that will bring toge ther science, policy, and practice, and support data-driven research to stop the loss of biodiversity. 86