[Okfn-ca] Fwd: [open-government] Carbon emissions transparency should be at the heart of the global open data agenda

Sat Jun 22 00:33:38 UTC 2013

Une inspiration, notamment pour la série d'événements ÉcoHackMTL
http://www.ecohackmtl.org/

Diane

-------- Message original --------
Sujet: 	[open-government] Carbon emissions transparency should be at the 
heart of the global open data agenda
Date : 	Fri, 21 Jun 2013 16:06:58 +0200
De : 	Christian Villum <christian.villum at okfn.org>
Pour : 	Open Government WG List <open-government at lists.okfn.org>

As part of the inspiring international discussions on open data 
following the G8 meeting in Northern Ireland a few days ago, Open 
Knowledge Foundation's Jonathan Grey underlines the significance of 
carbon emissions transparency.

    Carbon emissions transparency should be at the heart of the global
    open data agenda

June 21, 2013 in Featured <http://blog.okfn.org/category/featured/>, 
Open Data <http://blog.okfn.org/category/open-data/>, Policy 
<http://blog.okfn.org/category/policy/>, WG Sustainability 
<http://blog.okfn.org/category/working-groups/wg-sustainability/>

This week eight <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G8> of the world?s most 
powerful nations made unprecedented multilateral commitments 
<http://blog.okfn.org/2013/06/18/g8-highlights-open-data-as-crucial-for-governance-and-growth/> to 
open up their data:

  * the Open Data Charter
    <https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-data-charter/g8-open-data-charter-and-technical-annex> says
    that that public information should be published in accordance with
    open data principles by default;
  * the Lough Erne Declaration
    <https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/g8-lough-erne-declaration/g8-lough-erne-declaration-html-version> emphasises
    the importance of increased transparency in cracking down on tax
    evasion, corruption and illegal or unfair practises in natural
    resource extraction and land transactions.

But while ?pollution levels? gets a cursory mention as an example 
dataset under the ?Energy and Environment? heading of 14 data areas 
which are ?recognised as high value? (see 6.2 
<https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-data-charter/g8-open-data-charter-and-technical-annex> in 
the technical annex), there was a conspicuous absence of discussion 
about carbon emissions transparency or data that will be essential to 
implementing and monitoring commitments to cut emissions.

This reflects a more general lack of prioritisation of climate change at 
the G8 meeting, which was challenged by France and Germany 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/26/cameron-adviser-blocks-climate-change-g8> earlier 
this year, and picked up on by climate NGOs 
<http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/hey-g8-what-about-climate-20130617>, 
protestors 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jun/14/climate-activists-anti-capitalists-canary-wharf-protest> and 
policy experts 
<http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/archives/34244> alike earlier 
this week.

Apart from a page in the closing 33 page communique 
<https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/207771/Lough_Erne_2013_G8_Leaders_Communique.pdf>, 
noting that ?climate change is one of the foremost challenges for our 
future economic growth and well-being?, the topic was not treated with 
the level of gravity or urgency that you?d expect, given the scale of 
the commitments and energy needed for the world to avoid catastrophic 
changes in our climate.

There was explicit agreement that the world needs to ?limit the increase 
in global temperature to 2ºC above pre-industrial levels?, but ? apart 
from allusions to the next major UN summit on climate change in 2015 in 
Paris ? there was little discussion of how G8 countries will achieve and 
monitor the emissions cuts that are needed.

Recent scientific research 
<http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v458/n7242/full/nature08017.html> seems 
to indicate that to reduce the probability of a 2ºC global temperature 
increase to below 20%, the world has a total quota of around 886 
gigatonnes of carbon dioxide to emit between 2000 and 2050. Estimates 
suggest 
<http://www.carbontracker.org/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2011/07/Unburnable-Carbon-Full-rev2.pdf> that 
we had already burned our way through around a third of this total quota 
by 2011 ? and the fossil fuel reserves owned by the top 100 listed coal 
and top 100 listed oil and gas companies alone amount to more than our 
remaining quota. Known global reserves amount to the equivalent of over 
2,795 gigatonnes.

If we want to remain within this 886 gigatonne quota to avoid a 
temperature rise of more than 2ºC, governments around the world need to 
start making serious and concrete commitments very soon, and to publish 
more timely and granular information about how they are performing ? so 
they can be held accountable to their targets.

The UK?s draft order on greenhouse gas emissions reporting requirements 
<https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/82573/consult-ghg-regulations-20131.pdf> for 
top UK companies is a step in this direction ? but it is not explicitly 
connected with the UK?s open data efforts (the order mentions nothing 
about the information being made available in machine readable or openly 
licensed form). Our Advisory Board Member Hans Rosling has managed to 
secure a commitment 
<http://blog.okfn.org/2013/01/21/carbon-dioxide-data-is-not-on-the-worlds-dashboard-says-hans-rosling/> from 
the Swedish government to reduce delays in publication of essential 
emissions statistics by 6 months ? demonstrating that it is indeed 
possible for countries to publish critical emissions data with less than 
an 18-24 month delay (a delay which makes it hard for emissions related 
stories to break into a news culture which places a premium on recency).

We think carbon emissions data should be at the heart of global open 
data agenda ? and we urge open data policy makers, public servants, 
advocates and civic hackers to join us to make this happen.

/
/

/Image credits: Match smoke 
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/amagill/176876227/> by AMagill on Flickr 
(CC-BY). Diagram showing comparison of the global 2°C carbon budget with 
fossil fuel reserves CO2 emissions potential from the Carbon Tracker 
Initiative <http://www.carbontracker.org/>?s Unburnable Carbon 
<http://www.carbontracker.org/carbonbubble> report/

Original blog post: 
http://blog.okfn.org/2013/06/21/carbon-emissions-transparency-should-be-at-the-heart-of-the-global-open-data-agenda/

-- 

Christian Villum

Community Manager, Open Government Data + Local Groups Network
skype: christianvillum  | @villum <http://www.twitter.com/villum>
TheOpen Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/>
/Empowering through Open Knowledge
/http://okfn.org/  | @okfn <http://twitter.com/OKFN>  | OKF on Facebook 
<https://www.facebook.com/OKFNetwork>  |Blog <http://blog.okfn.org/> 
  |Newsletter <http://okfn.org/about/newsletter>

--------
--- Liaison | Curation par :
Dre Diane Mercier
Ph.D. Sciences de l'information

Ambassadrice de l'Open Knowledge Foundation - Groupe local au Canada
Profil : http://okfn.org/members/dianemercier
Blogue : http://ca.okfn.org
Liste de discussion : http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-ca
Meetup : http://www.meetup.com/OpenKnowledgeFoundation/Montreal-CA
Twitter : @okfnca

Chargée de projet sur les données ouvertes de la Ville de Montréal
Blogue : http://dianemercier.com
LinkedIn : http://www.linkedin.com/in/dianemercier
Skype : dianemercier
Zotero : http://www.zotero.org/dmercier

« Pas de données ouvertes, sans logiciel libre ni formats ouverts»

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/okfn-ca/attachments/20130621/63193986/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
open-government mailing list
open-government at lists.okfn.org
http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-government
Unsubscribe: http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/open-government