Greenhouse gas data and tools

At Endrava, we take a fact-based, data-driven approach for making recommendations. Climate-related decisions can have significant impacts on business operations and lifestyles and therefore we want our clients to make their decisions based on the best available knowledge.

The issue is, although there is plenty of climate-related data available out there, much of it is unfortunately not readily available. By that we mean available for decision-making, in an easy to understand manner, for non-technical people. Insights are often hidden in complex excel spreadsheets, or worse, locked in difficult to use, outdated software or websites. We remove these barriers by helping our customers collect, process and present data in a way that is easily accessible and understandable by most. That is how we turn complicated data into actionable advice.

We understand the data

We are a multidisciplinary team, with background in research, engineering and consulting. Through our past experience with various organizations, we have built up an understanding of the pipeline for emission data. That is how we understand the science behind the data we work with.

Some of this data is also produced by us, through work on greenhouse gas emission calculations for the oil and gas sector, on reporting to authorities (e.g. EU ETS quotas), when aggregating and quality-assuring the data (e.g. at the Norwegian NOx-fund and the process industries SOx fund), and when synthesizing and communicating the findings. We understand the data, the methodology used to obtain it, and what it is used for.

We have the tools to collect and analyse the data

Our best day at the office is when someone sends us a well-organized Excel spreadsheet to work with. But life is not always that easy, and over the years we have developed our own scripts and tools to collect and process data. We use Python or VBA to connect to web APIs, automate data harvesting online, and simply reformat data tables into something more appropriate to our tools. We further analyse and augment the data by finding new connections between datasets, and by processing geographical data in dedicated tools (e.g. geographic information systems – GIS).

We turn the data into meaningful insights

Let’s face it, most people prefer looking at a nice map or chart rather than at a large Excel spreadsheet. We pay attention to details when producing our results, and we always try to find the representations that make the most out of the data we have, whether that be charts, maps, or interactive dashboards in PowerBI. Data literacy is a skill in itself, and we pay particular attention to it when working on projects.
How do our results look in practice? Here are a few examples of projects we have completed. Further below you will also find a short list of some of our favorite data sources.

Example of projects

• 
  Making an overview of the use of oil and gas in the industry
  When thinking about oil and gas, many think about filling-up their car or warming their house. However, about a quarter of the oil and gas […]
• 
  Comparing GHG emissions from personal vehicles
  Our analysis of GHG emissions from personal vehicles show that electric, hydrogen and biogas cars are best for climate in Norway and Sweden. There has […]
• 
  Finding CO2 for capture and storage in Europe
  Carbon dioxide emissions are, unfortunately, present virtually everywhere in the world. Finding sources of CO2 emissions large enough to be captured and stored is however […]

Some of our favorite data sources

• The Norwegian Environment Agency (Miljødirektoratet) publishes every year an overview of scope 1 GHG emissions for municipalities and regions in Norway. This is very helpful when working with climate budgets.
• Eurostat produces very useful aggregated data for industrial activity, energy production and use, and emissions at the European level. Check in particular datasets “Greenhouse gas emissions by source sector (source: EEA) (env_air_gge)” and “Complete energy balances (nrg_bal_c)”.
• The EU-ETS transaction log is a treasure trove of emission data for industry and the power sector in Europe. Unfortunately the website a bit outdated, and their functionality for exporting data is not user-friendly.
• Electricy map, by Tomorrow, shows real-time electricity production and transfer for many countries of the world. Tomorrow also calculates and shows the greenhouse gas footprint of that electricity production in real time and also has time-series available.
• Our World in Data collates useful energy and climate data at the global level, shows it on interactive charts, and makes the data easily available for downloads.
• The UK government publishes a detailed list of emission factors for greenhouse gas reporting by UK and international organisations.