December 2014: The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) has published a report, titled ‘Recommendations on Climate Change-Related Statistics,’ which focuses on improving the official statistics used to analyze climate change, its causes and impacts. The publication promotes the use of climate change-related information generated by national statistical offices (NSOs) among official statisticians.

The report recommendations, which were endorsed by more than 60 countries and international organizations in April 2014, were developed by the Task Force on Climate Change-Related Statistics. The Task Force defined the report’s scope as “environmental, social and economic data that measure the human causes of climate change, the impacts of climate change on human and natural systems, the efforts of humans to avoid the consequences as well as their efforts to adapt to the consequences.”

After examining existing frameworks, such as the UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Central Framework (SEEA-CF) and the UN Framework for the Development of Environment Statistics (FDES), and defining the scope of climate change-related statistics, the report identifies user needs, NSO involvement, data gaps and challenges related to statistics for greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories, and separately, for statistics not used for GHG inventories. It also provides an extensive review of challenges related to statistical infrastructure.

The report recommendations focus on: statistics for GHG inventories; non-GHG inventory statistics; statistical infrastructure; and actions NSOs can take. Among its many suggestions, the Task Force recommends that NSOs: integrate their work with agencies producing GHG inventories; facilitate better access to national statistical systems for outsiders; and develop new statistics based on the needs of climate change policymakers and analysts. [UNECE Publication Webpage] [Publication: Conference of European Statisticians Recommendations on Climate Change-Related Statistics] [Task Force Website]