EDGAR: Global emissions database

EDGAR is a highly detailed global database of greenhouse gas and pollution emissions maintained by the European Commission.

EDGAR is “a multipurpose, independent, global database of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollution on Earth”.

Although most countries provide estimates of their greenhouse gas emissions, the timeliness and accuracy of these estimates may not always be sufficient. EDGAR provides completely independent and highly detailed estimates of emissions using activity data, which is particularly crucial in countries who may not have the capacity to accurately report emissions.

My work at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre is to help with the EDGAR database, in particular to implement a tool for calculating uncertainty on emissions estimates following IPCC guidelines that interacts automatically with the database. I will also be involved in data collection and F-gases.

This is a new project started in 2023 so I am still getting familiar with the database, but so far it has been fascinating to learn how emissions are calculated and I am looking forward to getting deeper into the project.