Establishinｇ a Database on Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors Meeting Report : Annex6

Activity data collection
mechanism of the International
Energy Agency
for its CO2 emissions database relevant highlights

Jeroen Meijer

The IEA collects no emission factors, onlyactivity data.
- Activity data:
extensive collection of energy supply andconsumption statistics, and of calorificvalues, through contacts with more than 100countries.
- CO2 emission factors:
IPCC defaults. Error introduced by notusing country-specific values is expected tobe small.

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Establishinｇ a Database on Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors Meeting Report : Annex6

Length of data series
IEA Energy data collection has started in1974.
Annual time series of energy supply anddemand, and of CO2 emissions go back to1971.

Data source for OECD member countries:- annual questionnaires under an IEA
agreement

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Establishinｇ a Database on Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors Meeting Report : Annex6

Data sources for non-OECD member
countries:- Questionnaires for UNECE member
countries (identical to questionnaires
sent to OECD countries)- Other international organisations, e.g.
United Nations, OLADE- national statistical bodies

Data sources for non-OECD member
countries (cont.):- energy consultants and companies
through direct contacts- Publications- Estimates
Information from non-OECD countries
is sometimes obtained in a non-standard
format.

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Establishinｇ a Database on Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors Meeting Report : Annex6

Usefulness of IEA statistical publications
enhanced through standardisation of- units- fuel definitions- sector definitions- energy balance format

Data collection is labour-intensive. About 15
IEA statisticians are full-time employed with:- processing of questionnaires- screening of national statistical publications- manual data input if no electronic files
available- QA/QC: performing checks on data consistency- contacting national statistical agencies forclarifications

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Establishinｇ a Database on Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors Meeting Report : Annex6

Data collection by the IEA is funded by its
24 member countries.
Many countries provide an in-kind
contribution by collecting national energy
statistics and delivering or publishing thesein standard IEA format.

A comparison of IEA CO2 calculations
with national CO2 calculations may leadto suggestions for improving CO2emission factors.

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Establishinｇ a Database on Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors Meeting Report : Annex6

Lessons for theGHG emission factor database project:- Ongoing data collection is labour-intensive.
- It is helpful if inventory agencies deliver
standardized information to the database
compilers.
- It is difficult to get standardized, high-quality
information for all countries of the world in theabsence of a legal reporting obligation.
Goodwill from countries can compensate this.

Lessons for theGHG emission factor database project (cont.):- Data checks are necessary to obtain a highquality database.
- Countries win by central data collection.
Ideally, each country supplies data from theirown country, and gets data from the rest of theworld in return.

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Establishinｇ a Database on Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors Meeting Report : Annex6

Lessons for theGHG emission factor database project (cont.):- Duplication of effort is avoided where only one
organisation creates a database withinternational coverage.

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