Box 19B Energy sources, availability and country groups

Key energy data sources

There are three main international organisations which gather energy data from questionnaires and studies, according to the scope of their responsibilities. The main data sources are Eurostat (CEC), the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the United Nations (UN). Results from questionnaire exercises are published regularly by these organisations, and there is substantial coordination between them in terms of classification, methodology and definitions.

From these sources energy data on total production and consumption are available for most countries except the newly independent states of the former USSR. However, sectoral fuel consumption data, on which to base analyses of energy efficiency prospects, is limited for all countries. Substantial errors are likely to exist in particular for Central and Eastern Europe where the use of energy was not measured in the past. For example, the IEA reports differences between IEA's own estimates and those made by the former Czechoslovakia for 1990 energy balance data, using IEA estimates as the base ­ see Table below (IEA, 1992).

  IEA methodformer
Czechoslovakia
method
Difference in data
MtoeMtoe Mtoe per cent
Total final consumption of solid fuels 10.821.610.8+100.0
Industry petroleum2.7 6.33.6+133.0
District heating and combined heat and power(CHP)12.72.4­10.3­81.1

Even larger errors are to be expected in emissions data, and in some countries estimates do not yet exist for all major gases. In addition to better information on fuel type and energy production, improvements in emissions reporting and forecasts will require the establishment of detailed inventories of major energy-using plant and equipment (ie, boilers, power stations, vehicle stock), their age, size, type of technology and current use of pollution control equipment. This task is being tackled in the CORINAIR project (see Chapter 14, Box 14C).

Country groupings

Given the form, described above, in which existing energy statistics are published, the following country groups have been used to present the data in this chapter:

Where Europe as a whole is referred to this includes the EU, EFTA, Central and Eastern Europe, Cyprus and Malta; the degree to which the former USSR is included or excluded is always stated.