Making Energy Statistics Available (NO0055)

Making energy statistics available Ongoing Responsible body Ministry of Petroleum and Energy What problem for the general public is the commitment aimed to solve? Norway is a major energy nation, and energy production is important to revenues and workplaces. Energy statistics are often technical, and they are not always user-friendly and readily available. What is the commitment? Making energy statistics more available to the general public How will the commitment contribute to solving the problem? A new website has been created, with an easy-to-understand and user-friendly overview of Norwegian energy production, for both renewable energy and petroleum. How is this commitment relevant to the OGP’s fundamental values? The value of open data and access to information. Additional information An effort is being made to explain difficult processes using graphics and other pedagogical instruments. The material should also be adapted to young students. Milestones Start date End date In progress No end date Contact information Person responsible from the implementing body Trude Nagell, Communications Unit, Ministry of Petroleum and Energy Entity Ministry of Petroleum and Energy E-mail/Telephone tcn@oed.dep.no / +47 22 24 62 73 Other public participants Collaborative civil society organisations, cross-sectoral working groups, etc.

2. Making energy statistics available

Main Objective

"Norway is a major energy nation, and energy production is important to revenues and workplaces. Energy statistics are often technical, and they are not always user-friendly and readily available. Making energy statistics more available to the general public.

A new website has been created, with an easy-to-understand and user-friendly overview of Norwegian energy production, for both renewable energy and petroleum."

Milestones

No milestones provided.

Editorial Note: For the complete text of this commitment, please see Norway's action plan at https://www.regjeringen.no/en/dokumenter/norges-handlingsplan-4---open-government-partnership-ogp/id2638814/

Commitment Analysis

According to the Extractives Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the petroleum sector represents 15 percent of Norway's GDP, while the country is the 10^th largest oil exporter and the third largest gas producer in the world. [7] This commitment aims to improve the accessibility and understandability of Norway's statistics on energy production. Specifically, the Communication Unit of the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy aims to increase availability of information on two different websites, one dedicated to petroleum [8] and one to renewable energy. [9]

The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy already publishes information related to petroleum production, but not to renewable energy. [10] According to an interviewed representative of the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, this commitment will involve finding ways to publish complex energy-related information in a way that is understandable for the general public, rather than providing open data to journalists, researchers, and other specialists. [11] In this sense, the ministry plans to improve the existing website on petroleum production, and create a similar website for renewable energy. The commitment is relevant to the OGP value of access to information as it aims to improve the quality and accessibility of statistics related to these two areas. While potential improvements to the website and the launch of the new website are verifiable, the action plan does not specify what improvements are envisaged, beyond "graphics and other pedagogical instruments".

Overall, this commitment could improve the accessibility of Norway's energy statistics by making the available information more understandable for the general public, including young students (which appears to be a target demographic for the commitment according to the action plan). However, the lack of details regarding how the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy plans to make this information more understandable makes it difficult to assess the potential impact as higher than minor.

Commitment 2. Making energy statistics available/easier access to energy statistics

• Verifiable: Yes
• Relevant: Access to information
• Potential impact: Minor

• Completion: Complete
• Did it open government? Marginal

This commitment lacked clearly defined milestones because it was “an ongoing process where it is not natural to set milestones,” according to the action plan. [4] The commitment aimed to improve the accessibility and understandability of Norway’s statistics on energy production with the creation of dedicated websites on renewable energy and petroleum. At the time of writing the Design Report, the Ministry was already publishing information about petroleum production [5] but not about renewable energy. The Ministry representative interviewed at the time explained that the commitment would involve finding ways to publish complex energy-related information in a way the public could understand by improving the petroleum website and creating a website on renewable energy. [6] Representatives of the Ministry did not respond to requests for interviews for the IRM Results Report. The website on renewable energy (including information about other types of energy) is currently running. [7] Information is downloadable either in the form of JPEG images or .xsl files, depending on the type of data. The data are current up to 2020. Research organisations Climate Analytics and NewClimate Institute use the data to populate their Climate Action Tracker. [8]