The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a global policy research network, has published the Oil-Climate Index (OCI), a dataset on the varying greenhouse gas emissions of 30 different oils used around the world. The OCI is designed to consolidate oil emission data, which is traditionally difficult to find, to influence how countries approach energy policy. For example, the data shows that one barrel of certain oils create nearly twice as many greenhouse gas emissions than a barrel of oil extracted from a different location or using different methods, which indicates that policymakers could reduce emissions without having to reduce oil consumption.
Image: John Hill.