Public Environmental Data Partners (PEDP)

Overview

The Public Environmental Data Partners (PEDP) is a volunteer coalition of environmental, justice, and policy organizations, academic researchers, archivists, and students committed to preserving and providing public access to federal environmental and climate data in the United States. PEDP operates as a coordinated, multi-stakeholder effort to ensure that federally produced environmental datasets and tools remain accessible to the public, particularly in periods when government data is at risk of removal or inaccessibility.

History and Founding

PEDP was formed in November 2024 by the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI) in response to concerns about the potential removal of federal environmental information in the lead-up to the second Trump administration. EDGI, which had been monitoring and documenting changes to federal environmental data since 2016, recognized a need to coordinate data preservation efforts across organizations. PEDP today is led by EDGI, the Open Environmental Data Project (OEDP), and the Environmental Policy Innovation Center, in partnership with numerous other organizations and institutions. OEDP acts as the coalition's fiscal sponsor and leads several of its working groups.

Collections and Activities

PEDP's work centers on three pillars: data and tool preservation, development of analytic public data tools, and public data advocacy. As of early 2025, PEDP had identified 57 high-priority federal databases for preservation and had archived over 37 of them. Preserved resources include the EPA's EJScreen environmental justice mapping tool, FEMA's Future Risk Index, the CDC's Social Vulnerability and Environmental Justice indices, the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST), and hundreds of additional federal datasets. The coalition has obtained significant cloud storage infrastructure and is building a public-facing project hub and data explorer.

Relevance to Journalism and Research

PEDP's work is of direct importance to journalists, environmental advocates, public health researchers, and communities affected by pollution and climate change. The preserved datasets underpin investigative reporting on environmental justice, climate policy, regulatory enforcement, and public health, and support litigation and policy advocacy.

Access

PEDP's data and tool archive is accessible at screening-tools.com. The coalition publishes lists of archived resources and updates on newly preserved datasets through its website.