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

Fri Jun 21 14:06:58 UTC 2013

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>
The Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/>
*Empowering through Open Knowledge
*http://okfn.org/  |  @okfn <http://twitter.com/OKFN>  |  OKF on
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