The usefulness of existing environmental, social and economic statistics for climate change analysis should be improved

The usefulness of existing environmental, social and economic statistics for climate change analysis should be improved. To do this, NSOs may wish to consider the following issues and actions:

Good Practices

Name of the caseCountryBrief descriptionResultsDifficultiesFurther information
How geospatial statistics can measure climate change?SwedenDescribes experiences processing spatial data and geo-referenced spatial data into statistics- Constructing a bridge between statistical and spatial communities
- Swedish Spatial Data Cooperation (inspired by European INSPIRE Directive, which requires data sharing between public authorities)
- Data integration help prepare better for extreme events (i.e. floods)
- Confidentiality (disclosure)PPT
The integrated statistical system on energyLuxembourgDescribes the integration of a previously inconsistent system in which various official sets on the same energy statistics into one official dataset coordinated by the NSO

- Centralized system
- Maximum of producers and users involved in the project
- Exchanges between partners were not limited to transfer of data; partners were involved in the whole system and in its improvement

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National Inventory SystemSloveniaThe National Inventory System integrates the statistical data producer (NSO) and the GHG inventory producer (Environmental Agency).

- Co-operation loop
- Data flow in both ways
- Emission calculation: Environmental agency estimates data on fuel use in agriculture and forestry and provide these data to NSO, who reviews the inventory, check for data consistency and improvements.


- Communication is important (both at national and international levels)

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Integrating energy and climate change statisticsUnited KingdomDescribes the use of Energy Statistics in the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory

-The UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory uses national (top down) and facility-level (bottom up) statistics to estimate UK GHG emissions from energy

- The Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) provide activity data for use of different fuels and the overall UK energy data.

- Data is supplemented by facility-level data on activity and emission factors from: the EU Emissions Trading System; UK Pollution Inventories from the Regulators; and Industry Bodies

- Difficult to explain differences between datasets where facility-level data are used instead or to supplement energy data
- Comparability with other datasets based on UK energy data (i.e. emissions estimates by IEA and Eurostat)
- ETS data requires a lot of pre-processing

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