Greenhouse Gas Emission Data
Public, difficult to access, and not always correct
Hanno Böck
industrydecarbonization.com
Climate Change has causes
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Image Power Plant: GeorgHH, Public Domain
Image Flood: Czach, CC0
Greenhouse Gas Emission Data
UNFCCC
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Data about country-level emissions
Common Reporting Tables (CRTs)
Excel tables
What can we do with this data?
Let's say you ask yourself:
What are the N₂O Emissions of Caprolactam production in different countries?
Why is that interesting?
https://industrydecarbonization.com/news/the-avoidable-super-greenhouse-gas-from-fertilizer-nylon-and-vitamin-b3-production.html
They have a Data Interface with an API, but no data after 2021
Raw Tables
One ZIP file per country
(104 countries)
Automate Downloads!
curl https://unfccc.int/ghg-inventories-annex-i-parties/2025
<html>
<head>
<META NAME="robots" CONTENT="noindex,nofollow">
<script src="/_Incapsula_Resource?SWJIYLWA=5074a744e2e3d891814e9a2dace20bd4,719d34d31c8e3a6e6fffd425f7e032f3">
</script>
<body>
</body></html>They prevent automated Downloads with a "Security Firewall"
🔥🧱🤡
Why?
I eventually managed to download all the data (using Selenium)
https://industrydecarbonization.com/docs/unfccc/
Emissions from single factories
Kyiv Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers
User-Friendly CSV
Let's put that into a database
https://github.com/decarbonizenews/ghgsql
Docker, MariaDB (SQL), phpMyAdmin
DEMO
Elkem Ferrosilicon (Iceland)
Photo: Hanno Böck
SELECT year,releases FROM eu.iep WHERE pollutant='CO2' AND country='Iceland' AND name LIKE 'Elkem%' ORDER BY year;
Elkem Ferrosilicon (Iceland, kgCO₂/year)
| 2013 | 407,000,000 |
| 2014 | 369,000,000 |
| 2015 | - |
| 2016 | - |
| 2017 | - |
| 2018 | 404,000 |
| 2019 | 332 |
| 2020 | 358,000 |
| 2021 | 375,893 |
| 2022 | 361,901 |
Alcoa Aluminium (Iceland, kgCO₂/year)
| 2013 | 532,000,000 |
| 2014 | 520,000,000 |
| 2015 | 531,000,000 |
| 2016 | 509,000,000 |
| 2017 | 535,000,000 |
| 2018 | 533,704,242 |
| 2019 | 535,888 |
| 2020 | 528,000 |
| 2021 | 493,836 |
| 2022 | 506,511 |
Norðurál Aluminium (Iceland)
| 2011 | 62,100 kgSF₆ |
(Iceland total: ~3.5 Million)
Photo: Hanno Böck
Something is not right with Emission Reporting in Iceland...
I contacted the European Environmental Agency (June 2025)
[...] we referred the matter to the Icelandic data reporter for clarification. Unfortunately, despite our follow-up, we have not received any further information from their side. [...] With this, we will close the present enquiry.
(European Environmental Agency, September 2025)
I was not satisfied with this answer
European Environmental Agency referred me to European Commission
European Commission referred me to European Environmental Agency
European Emission Trading System (ETS)
The Emission Trading System is using another dataset (Union Registry, Excel tables)
Two data sources for CO₂ emissions
(However: no shared identifier)
Linking EU ETS installations to ENTSOE-Power Plants and IEP Facilities
Jan Abrell, Mirjam Kosch, Leonard Stimpfle (CADMUS EUI Research Repository, 2025)
Elkem Ferrosilicon (Iceland, tCO₂/year)
| year | Emission Trading | Industrial Emissions |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 406,948 | 407,000 |
| 2014 | 369,352 | 369,000 |
| 2015 | 401,844 | - |
| 2016 | 402,484 | - |
| 2017 | 402,088 | - |
| 2018 | 403,336 | 404 |
| 2019 | 332,149 | 0.332 |
| 2020 | 357,622 | 358 |
| 2021 | 375,893 | 376 |
| 2022 | 361,901 | 362 |
Alcoa Aluminium (Iceland, kgCO₂/year)
| year | Emission Trading | Industrial Emissions |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 583,627 | 532,000 |
| 2014 | 591,238 | 520,000 |
| 2015 | 596,581 | 531,000 |
| 2016 | 538,524 | 509,000 |
| 2017 | 558,605 | 535 |
| 2018 | 560,264 | 534 |
| 2019 | 557,975 | 536 |
| 2020 | 555,481 | 528 |
| 2021 | 515,137 | 494 |
| 2022 | 534,178 | 507 |
Data from Emission Trading System appears to be more reliable
Emission Trading System is about Money
Industrial Emissions Portal is "only" about Transparency
It's not just in Iceland where emission data looks odd
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ArcelorMittal Steel (Dunkirk, France)
ArcelorMittal Steel/DRI (Hamburg, Germany)
No CO₂ data in Industrial Emissions Portal
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Yara Fertilizer (Ambès, France)
Solvay SF₆ (Bad Wimpfen, Germany)
I tried to find similar "suspicious" emission sources.
The problem is that there are so many of them.
No explanation from any of them
No answer from Icelandic and French authorites
No meaningful explanation from European Commission or European Environmental Agency
Data Update December 2025:
None of the mentioned issues were corrected
It is unclear what the source of those errors is.
The companies?
National authorities?
EU authorities?
For some cases with diverging data in both databases, it is unclear which source is correct
European Emission Data
- We have Open Data about Greenhouse Gas Emissions from European factories👍
- The data contains obvious and easily detectable errors👎
- The affected companies and responsible authorities don't appear to care much about correcting those errors👎
Thanks for listening!
Questions?
 industrydecarbonization.com |
 youtube.com/@decarbonizeeveryting |