The Energy and Carbon Emissions Inventory Database (ECDB)

About the ECDB

Primary energy data are published by reporting organizations in different units, using different primary energy equivalences for hydroelectric, renewable and nuclear power, and in-/ex-cluding different sources of energy (e.g. from municipal and industrial wastes). Similarly, accounting methods and the included emission sources also differ for international inventories of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. These inventory uncertainties often go unnoticed and can reduce the accuracy of scientific research based on single databases and could make policies less effective. The ECDB allows for the direct comparison of the original, reported data, while also enabling harmonized comparisons across inventories. Energy statistics data from three major international energy statistics are integrated into the ECDB, including: the International Energy Agency (IEA), the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), and BP plc.

The ECDB incorporates six carbon emission inventories: IEA’s Sectoral and Reference Approaches, the EIA, the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC), the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR), and BP plc.

Background

The Energy and Carbon Database is the first publicly available tool that documents uncertainties in energy and carbon emission statistics and allows users to reconcile different inventory data at least partly. It was developed for the purposes of model calibration and for an assessment of potential impacts of uncertain emission inventory data on carbon markets. The ECDB was created and developed by Jordan Macknick in 2009 and covered the period 1970 to 2007. An update until the years 2011/2012 was completed in 2013 by Mathis Rogner, and a second update in 2018 with data until 2015/2016 by Benigna Boza-Kiss at IIASA.

User guidelines

The ECDB is set out as a simple Excel spreadsheet (see download below). It consolidates primary energy and carbon emission inventories and allows users to view all reporting inventories side-by-side. Users can thus compare the original data, as well as the harmonized data from different inventories using consistent accounting frameworks. Interested users should download the file and open it. The user can select the details for harmonization on the “Assumptions” page. User-specified selections for harmonized comparisons are available first of all for reporting units for both primary energy and for carbon emissions. Furthermore, the primary energy equivalences of non-fossil fuels, the heating value settings, and the consumption/emission category sources to be included in primary energy values and carbon emissions respectively can be defined by the user. For energy data in-/exclusion of traditional (non-commercial) biomass, and modern renewable energy forms can be harmonized across inventories. For CO₂ emission reports, inventories can be harmonized to include comparable sources of emissions: fossil fuel use, natural gas flaring, cement manufacture, traditional biomass burning, combustion of municipal wastes, and lastly also emission from land-use changes. The user can also select the desired macro-economic metrics for the calculation of intensities. Finally, the country (or world) for which values should be plotted on the dashboards can be chosen. Results are shown in datatables (totals, per capita values and intensities), as well as on graphs on the energy and the carbon dashboards.

The latest update of the ECDB was completed in 2018 and now covers inventory data up to 2015-2016. The source inventories were updated, additional fuel and emissions sources were added (e.g. renewable heat), and a selection related to heating (calorific) values was integrated. A completely new dashboard was added to summarize key comparative results, which can now display national level data of the user’s choice.

What’s New?

The latest update of the ECDB was completed in 2018 and now covers inventory data up to 2015-2016. The source inventories were updated, additional fuel and emissions sources were added (e.g. renewable heat), and a selection related to heating (calorific) values was integrated. A completely new dashboard was added to summarize key comparative results, which can now display national level data of the user’s choice.