Research Tools: Global Registry of Fossil Fuels Launches Online

From Reuters:

Carbon Tracker and Global Energy Monitor said on Monday they had launched the first global registry of oil and gas reserves, production and emissions with data for more than 50,000 fields.

The database makes previously disparate or hard-to-access data publicly available, including to investors attempting to better understand which assets could be at risk of being uneconomic, or ‘stranded’, in the low-energy transition.

It could also help activists in their efforts to pressure producers or governments to cut fossil fuel output.

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The UNEP Production Gap reports have established the fact of a large fossil fuel overhang in relation to the remaining carbon budget, while the IEA has shown that no new fields can be developed and that some existing fields retired early if we are to limit warming to 1.5C.

However, policymakers and civil society lack the asset level data needed to inform decisions on how to manage this phase-out, while markets lack the information to predict which assets are likely to become stranded.

The Global Registry of Fossil Fuels was created to fill this data gap. It is the first public database of fossil fuel production and reserves worldwide that tracks their impact on the carbon budget. The Registry is entirely policy neutral and fully transparent in its assumptions and calculations, and it is hoped that in due course it will be situated formally within the international climate policymaking process.

At launch, the Registry contains data for over 50,000 fields in 89 countries, covering 75% of global production. Among other things it shows that the US and Russia each hold enough fossil fuel reserves to blow the entire global carbon budget, even if all other countries ceased production immediately. Of the 50,000 fields covered by the registry, the most potent source of emissions is the Ghawar oil field in Saudi Arabia, which produces approximately 525 million tons of carbon emissions each year.

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