Bing Maps Powers Environmental Atlas of Europe

Aiming to drive commitment and support of actions against climate change, Microsoft unveiled a new Cloud-based application during the COP 15 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, today, December 14th. Built in partnership with the European Environment Agency (EEA), the Environmental Atlas of Europe is an integral part of the Redmond company’s vision to leverage technology in order to tackle environmental challenges. In this regard, Atlas is designed to open up access to information on climate change accompanied by accurate climate change data.

“As the world’s leading software company, we believe technology will play a vital role against tough issues facing the world like climate change,” said Rob Bernard, chief environmental strategist at Microsoft. “With the help of our Bing Maps visualization technology, Atlas enables people to connect to the issue by visualizing the changes occurring to our world today and provides another tangible example of how technology can contribute.”

Atlas is not the first example of collaboration between Microsoft and EEA. The duo have worked on and unveiled the Eye on Earth portal, an online resource set up to deliver air and water quality information across the European Union. And just like Eye on Earth, Atlas too is built on top of Microsoft technology, namely Bing Maps and Azure SQL, part of the Windows Azure Cloud platform. For the time being, users will be able to witness climate change stories from nine locations across Europe: Denmark, Finland, Georgia, Ireland, Italy, Lapland, Netherlands, Poland and Russia.

“Responding effectively to climate change demands not just effective policies but also widespread commitment to make a difference. We need more people to understand what is at stake and then act,” addeed Jacqueline McGlade, executive director of EEA. “The Eye on Earth platform has already made environmental information more accessible, allowing people to grasp what is happening to the environment in their neighborhoods and across Europe. Atlas now takes this one step further by allowing people to share their stories of climate change’s impacts and their responses, broadening understanding and inspiring others to act.”