{ "title": "Bridging Data Gaps Can Help Tackle the Climate Crisis", "publication": "IMF Blog, November 28, 2022", "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2022/11/28/bridging-data-gaps-can-help-tackle-the-climate-crisis", "canonical": "https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2022/11/28/bridging-data-gaps-can-help-tackle-the-climate-crisis", "overlayPath": "/en/blogs/articles/2022/11/28/bridging-data-gaps-can-help-tackle-the-climate-crisis/index.md", "summary": "A new data gaps initiative will play an important role in addressing climate-related data deficits", "sections": [ { "heading": "Overview", "content": "- Authors: Bo Li, Bert Kroese\n- Publication date: November 28, 2022\n- Key maxim quoted: “When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it”.\n- Central argument: Policymakers face major information gaps that impede their ability to understand the impact of climate mitigation and adaptation policies; comprehensive and internationally comparable data are essential to monitor progress and know what works." }, { "heading": "Data gaps and priorities", "content": "- The new Data Gaps Initiative seeks to make official statistics more detailed and timely.\n- The initiative calls for better data to understand climate change, together with indicators that cover:\n - income and wealth,\n - financial innovation and inclusion,\n - access to private and administrative data,\n - data sharing.\n- Official statistics need to be broader, more detailed, and timely to support policy design and evaluation." }, { "heading": "Energy sector focus", "content": "- The sector identified as needing the most change is energy, described as the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for around three-quarters of the total.\n- Policymakers require detailed statistics to:\n - monitor the path of the energy transition,\n - devise effective mitigation measures that can deliver the fastest and least disruptive pathway toward net zero emissions." }, { "heading": "Distributional impacts and household measures", "content": "- Countries need to monitor how mitigation and adaptation measures affect household incomes, consumption, and wealth.\n- Specific policy questions highlighted:\n - How will rising fossil fuel costs impact vulnerable households?\n - How should investments be prioritized to address new weather patterns and more frequent climate shocks?\n- The initiative argues for going beyond gross domestic product in national statistics by capturing a suite of climate indicators and distributional estimates of household income and wealth to help policymakers weigh distributional implications." }, { "heading": "International coordination and related initiatives", "content": "- G20 Leaders asked the IMF to coordinate with:\n - the Financial Stability Board,\n - the Inter-agency Group on Economic and Financial Statistics,\n - statistical authorities across the G20,\n to “begin work on filling these data gaps and report back on progress in the second half of 2023, noting that the targets are ambitious and delivery will need to take into account national statistical capacities, priorities, and country circumstances as well as avoiding overlap and duplication at the international level.”\n- The initiative will draw on collective expertise of international agencies and work by groups such as the Network for Greening the Financial System to develop a common understanding of climate-related financial instruments.\n- Links with IMF work:\n - IMF’s Climate Indicators Dashboard as a statistical initiative to supply climate-related data for economic analysis.\n - IMF joint project to provide implementation guidance on G20 high-level principles for taxonomies and other sustainable-finance alignment approaches." }, { "heading": "Policy implications and expected role of the initiative", "content": "- Better, more detailed, and timely data are essential for:\n - assessing effectiveness of mitigation and adaptation policies,\n - informing where course corrections are needed,\n - understanding broad impacts of climate change, the green transition, and associated physical, economic, and financial risks.\n- The data gaps initiative is expected to play a key role in addressing climate-related data deficits and supporting G20 policymaking.\n\nSource: IMF blog post “Bridging Data Gaps Can Help Tackle the Climate Crisis” (November 28, 2022).\n\n---\n\n\n References\n\n- Data Gaps Initiative\n- Data Gaps Initiative\n- common understanding of climate-related financial instruments.\n- IMF’s Climate Indicators Dashboard\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2022/11/28/bridging-data-gaps-can-help-tackle-the-climate-crisis" } ], "bullets": [ "[Markdown version](/en/blogs/articles/2022/11/28/bridging-data-gaps-can-help-tackle-the-climate-crisis/index.md)", "[Structured JSON version](/en/blogs/articles/2022/11/28/bridging-data-gaps-can-help-tackle-the-climate-crisis/index.json)", "[Bundle manifest](/en/blogs/articles/2022/11/28/bridging-data-gaps-can-help-tackle-the-climate-crisis/bundle-manifest.json)", "Authors: Bo Li, Bert Kroese", "Published: November 28, 2022", "Authors: Bo Li, Bert Kroese", "Publication date: November 28, 2022", "Key maxim quoted: “When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it”.", "Central argument: Policymakers face major information gaps that impede their ability to understand the impact of climate mitigation and adaptation policies; comprehensive and internationally comparable data are essential to monitor progress and know what works.", "The new Data Gaps Initiative seeks to make official statistics more detailed and timely.", "The initiative calls for better data to understand climate change, together with indicators that cover:", "Official statistics need to be broader, more detailed, and timely to support policy design and evaluation.", "The sector identified as needing the most change is energy, described as the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for around three-quarters of the total.", "Policymakers require detailed statistics to:", "Countries need to monitor how mitigation and adaptation measures affect household incomes, consumption, and wealth.", "Specific policy questions highlighted:", "The initiative argues for going beyond gross domestic product in national statistics by capturing a suite of climate indicators and distributional estimates of household income and wealth to help policymakers weigh distributional implications.", "G20 Leaders asked the IMF to coordinate with:", "The initiative will draw on collective expertise of international agencies and work by groups such as the Network for Greening the Financial System to develop a common understanding of climate-related financial instruments.", "Links with IMF work:", "Better, more detailed, and timely data are essential for:", "The data gaps initiative is expected to play a key role in addressing climate-related data deficits and supporting G20 policymaking.", "[Data Gaps Initiative](https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2022/11/28/pr22410-g20-leaders-welcome-ndgi-to-address-climate-change-inclusion-financial-innovation)", "[Data Gaps Initiative](https://www.imf.org/en/News/Seminars/Conferences/g20-data-gaps-initiative)", "[common understanding of climate-related financial instruments.](https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2022/08/23/achieving-net-zero-emissions-requires-closing-a-data-deficit)", "[IMF’s Climate Indicators Dashboard](https://climatedata.imf.org/pages/re-indicators)" ], "alternates": { "markdown": "/en/blogs/articles/2022/11/28/bridging-data-gaps-can-help-tackle-the-climate-crisis/index.md", "json": "/en/blogs/articles/2022/11/28/bridging-data-gaps-can-help-tackle-the-climate-crisis/index.json", "bundleManifest": "/en/blogs/articles/2022/11/28/bridging-data-gaps-can-help-tackle-the-climate-crisis/bundle-manifest.json" }, "generatedAtUtc": "2026-08-26T02:55:39.358Z" }