Climate Data Agency: Intra-Active Knowledge Production Between the Human and Non-Human World

In this intervention, we engage with Karen Barad's agential-realist concept of intra-action to explore how knowledge about climate emerges from the intra-active entanglements between climate scientists and nature through processes of data collection, representation and interpretation. By adopting Barad's new materialist perspective, we employ the concept of climate data agency to understand the role of climate data in shaping both scientific inquiry and political responses to climate change. We argue that climate scientists actively co-constitute the realities they aim to measure, thereby shaping what is perceived as ‘climate’ and ‘climate change’. This perspective is particularly urgent in the context of contemporary climate politics, where data-driven decisions are pivotal. Understanding the climate data agency offers crucial insights into how knowledge about climate is produced, legitimised and mobilised within political and societal processes, ultimately influencing global efforts to combat the climate crisis. The concept of ‘climate data agency’ understands climate measurements as intra-active practices. These practices both reflect world history and contemporary social interests. At the same time, they possess agency, as they shape political decisions that in turn influence, for example, scientific practices (including climate measurements) or climate drivers.