IEA hosts joint data meeting with experts from IPCC

The International Energy Agency hosted a two-day joint meeting with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, gathering energy statisticians and inventory experts from across 25 countries and organisations.

The meeting examined ways to improve the quality of data, nationally and globally, to better track the progress of climate policies. IPCC experts have taken part in the international process of harmonisation of energy statistics that led to the United Nations International Recommendations for Energy Statistics.

Cooperation between the IEA and IPCC on data began with the IPCC/OECD/IEA Greenhouse gas inventory programme in 1991. Over time, IEA experts have contributed to setting out international methodologies, such as the various editions of the IPCC Guidelines for GHG inventories, and taken part in the GHG review process of the UNFCCC.

One clear outcome of the meeting was to enhance synergies nationally between energy statistics, energy efficiency and inventory data collection and use, including the need for political commitment and coordination across the corresponding policy streams. Participants requested international organisations, such as IEA, IPCC and UNFCCC, to work together in capacity building to develop energy-related national statistical systems in developing countries.

The experts also had technical discussions on how to validate data for the IPCC emission factors database. This stream was linked to the meeting of the Editorial Board for the IPCC Emission Factor database, also held in Paris from 12 to 15 December.

Cooperation between the IEA and IPCC is broader than their work on data. It encompasses contributions on scenario work to the IPCC report on 1.5 degrees as a key input to the Talanoa Dialogue, the collective stock-taking process in 2018 to assess progress towards the Paris Agreement’s long-term goals.

The IEA is actively engaged in tracking various underlying indicators of energy transition, through Tracking Clean Energy Progress, World Energy Investment, Energy Efficiency Indicators and key statistics, and will further enhance tracking efforts to support the Dialogue.

Last month, IEA announced the launch of the Clean Energy Transitions Programme, a multi-year initiative that will strengthen the IEA’s work to accelerate clean energy transitions around the world, especially in developing and emerging economies. Supporting capacity building and robust energy and emissions data are a key element of this programme.