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UN Statistical Commission 2011. Seminar. UN Statistical Commission 2011. Seminar. 21.02.201121.02.2011IRES, Achievements and future challenges. IRES, Achievements and future challenges. The work in the Oslo Group on Energy statistics The work in the Oslo Group on Energy statistics and IRES from a country perspective.and IRES from a country perspective.

Olav Ljones

Chair of the Oslo Group

Statistics Norway

olj@ssb.no

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The Oslo Group - history

• Programme review of energy statistics by the UNSC (2005); report prepared by Statistics Norway.

• The need for revising the existing international recommendations and firmly position energy statistics within the system of official statistics is recognized.

• The creation of the Oslo Group on Energy Statistics and the Intersecretariat Working Group on Energy Statistics (InterEnerStat).

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Key content providers

• Both the Oslo Group and InterEnerStat are key content providers to IRES and ESCM in accordance with the mandates given to them by the Commission.

• The London Group are consulted on the issues relevant to its work programme.

• The UNCEEA – and the umbrella function responsible for coordination of LG and OG.

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Status - challenges

• Handbooks etc. UN 1982 ( 1987 and 1991)

• IEA and Eurostat . Energy Statistics Manual 2005.

• Classifications. Energy inseveral economic classifications.

• Definitions, e.g. energy units etc

• Statistics and analytical use. Balances and Accounts

• Energy one of many outputs and innputs in the economy

• Energy a resource, sometimes non renewable

• Use of energy and the influence on environment

• Energy markets and economic trends

• Official statistics – energy statistics is not always fully integerated in national official statistics, Quality.

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OG1 – First meeting in Oslo, Norway

• Coordination with the Inter Secretariat Group: Review of the definitions and make proposal for common definitions for energy products with special focus on the new and renewable energy products;

• Best practices: collect country practices and use them for the elaboration of the definitions/manual;

• Multipurpose data base: Encouraged countries to build a legal base for data collection.

• Institutional arrangements: Having a good, mutual communication with policy makers and administrators in the countries, and making efforts to increase status and priority of this important area, is therefore recommended.

• Drafting: The Oslo group will focus on working towards to provide drafts and issue papers before the second meeting of the Group on the following topics

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OG2 – Second meeting in Dehli, India

• User needs: it is important to clarify the user needs. The user needs will explain the need for data on production, transport, end use, user group distribution etc

• Energy supply and use: To identify the differences between energy balances and energy accounts and to explore the possibility/ propose solution to make an energy supply and use system that serves all user needs.Today both the terms energy accounts and energy balances are used. The Oslo Group wants to identify the differences between these systems. If possible the aim is to develop one common system of supply and use tabulations that will cover both the contents of energy balances and accounts. The system should be consistent with the system of National Accounts, with some deviation if and when necessary.

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OG3 – Third meeting Vienna, Austria

• Endorsed the UNSD proposal to develop International Recommendations for Energy Statistics (IRES) and to submit IRES to the UN Statistical Commission for adoption at its 41st session (2010);

• Agreed that IRES should focus on basic energy statistics and energy balances;

• Concluded that IRES should contain a chapter on bridging energy balances and energy accounts. Took note, in this connection, that UNSD plans to prepare a complementary document System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Energy (SEEA-E) which will provide the international statistical standard for energy accounts.

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Revision process after OG3

• The UNSD role is to coordinate the revision process, organize a worldwide consultation, consolidate and edit inputs into the successive versions of the draft IRES, submit the final draft of IRES to the Commission, and to coordinate preparation of and publishing of ESCM.

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Revision process after OG3

• Annotated outline of the IRES and a list of issues for a worldwide consultation (spring 2008);

• Worldwide consultation with countries on the IRES outline and list of issues (spring 2008);

• International Workshop on Energy Statistics (nov 2008, Mexico);

• Preparation of the first version of IRES and its review by the 4th meeting of the Oslo Group;

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OG4 – Fourth meeting in Ottawa, Canada

• energy prices should be covered in IRES given their high policy demand and the extensive country experience in the collection of these statistics.

• although statistics on reserves and resources are important, they should not be included in IRES; however, IRES should cover the links between extraction/production and resources and reserves so that the resulting statistics can be comparable.

• the work on the harmonization of definitions in energy statistics by InterEnerStat lead by IEA will be the basis for the development of the Standard International Energy Classification

• Discussed the boundary of production for energy statistics to include statistics such as flaring and venting which are important for environment statistics and climate change. The Group agreed that the production boundary does not necessarily need to be changed provided that these statistics are collected. In addition, these statistics are important to link primary production to the quantity of fuels extracted from reserves and resources.

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OG5 – Fifth meeting in Cork, Ireland

• IRES draft version 0 was prepared by UNSD for the meeting

• Agreed on the use of the term “energy product” as proposed in the current version of IRES.Energy products refer to products that are relevant for energy statistics in the sense that they are used as a source of energy either directly or after a transformation. They include fuels as well as energy in the form of heat and electricity.

• Agreed on the use of the term “energy industries” as proposed in the current version of IRES. Energy industries are defined in Chapter 5 as economic units whose principal activity is primary energy production, transformation of energy and transmission/distribution of energy. This means that the value added generated by these activities exceed that of any other activity carried out within the same economic unit

• Noted that IRES should encourage the collection and/or estimation of data items on the energy consumed by nationals abroad and by foreigners on the territory in order to support bridging energy balances with energy accounts;

• IRES and SEEA-E are seen as two complementary documents and their preparation will be fully coordinated.

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Revision process after OG5

• Worldwide consultation on the provisional draft of IRES (summer 2010);

• Preparation of the amended draft of IRES, its review and endorsement by the UN Expert Group on Energy Statistics (Q3, 2010); and

• Submission of the final draft of IRES to the Statistical Commission 2011

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OG6 – Next meeting in Australia

• Focus on ESCM – Energy Statistics Compilers Manual

• Additional guidance on more practical/technical matters (e.g., good practices, country case studies, etc.) to assist countries in implementation of IRES and SEEA-E is to be provided in Energy Statistics Compilers Manual (ESCM). ESCM is to be prepared by UNSD, the Oslo Group and InterEnerStat.

• ESCM is seen as a compilation guidance and, as such, is not supposed to go through the formal adoption by the UNSC.

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Why a city group ?

• Involve national experts in internatinal process

• Value added to the international process

• Expert meetings – stimulate the work in NSOs and other expert institutions

• Creates international networks

• For energy such networks give extra value since energy statistics in many countries are decentralised from NSOs