Data Quality Challenges and Opportunities with Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reporting in the US and Implications for Future Policy to Mitigate Climate Change

摘要

Regulatory framework in the US for mitigating climate change will likely utilize market-based mechanisms to mandate emission reductions and thereby spur technology innovations (e.g. a cap-and-trade program wherein emissions would be traded as a commodity). The GHGRP was promulgated by the US EPA to inform such future policy decisions and likely be used as the foundation for a market-based GHG emissions trading program. For a market-based program to work, it is essential to have reliable and consistent measurement methods for emissions to be regulated and traded as a commodity. To meet the goal of achieving actual, measurable emissions reductions in a cost-effective manner, emissions from all sources and sectors covered under the market-based program must be consistently and accurately measured and reported.10 Numerous factors are presented in this paper that result in significant variations in quality of data from one sector to another and also within the same sector from one source type to another or one reporter to another. The electricity generation sector, due to the sophistication and maturity of systems and existing regulations, has a high level of data confidence and consistency across the sector. The upstream oil and natural gas industry sector presently faces significant challenges in this regard due to the dynamic nature and geographical extent of operations and the infancy of systems and regulations associated with emissions reporting. As the GHGRP matures, targeted approaches by the US EPA to hone in on the largest contributing source types to reduce the variations in accuracy across the sector and across reporters will be critical to provide the consistency of data quality that is essential for the success of a future market-based trading program.