Climate Policy Databases

Accurate and transparent data is fundamental to climate and energy research at Climate Policy Lab (CPL) and beyond. Climate Policy Lab develops analytical tools and government-engagement programs to assist policy makers to estimate the emissions reductions or avoided emissions for specific policies or a range of complementary policies within the context of national political, societal, cultural, and technical landscapes. We believe that access to accurate and transparent data collection and analysis facilitates more ambitious climate action and improves the level of success in achieving urgent climate action goals.

Policy makers need more information on how new and additional policies could enable them to set more economically beneficial, ambitious targets for the next round of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and for their mid-century goals, with a particular emphasis on how to avoid growth in emissions while still growing economically.

Climate Policy Lab at the Fletcher School at Tufts University is pleased to provide a number of data sets that can be used by policy makers, students, and researchers in climate policy evaluation and analysis.

Global Public Energy RD&D Expenditures Database

This visualization depicts global public investments in energy research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) since 2000 and until the most recent year data is available, collated by the Climate Policy Lab. When selecting data display options below, please note that some of the data filters will update or become inactive based on your selected data display options. Click here to access.

National Climate Policy Inventories

CPL’s national climate policy inventories allow observers to track individual government’s progress in designing, implementing, and enforcing national climate policies consistent with their ongoing international commitments to global climate accords. Click here to access the policy inventories of:

U.S. Department of Energy Database on Research, Development, Demonstration, and Deployment

Climate Policy Lab provides easy to access historical data on U.S. Department of Energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment spending by category from fiscal year 1978 to present. The data is a building block to assess policy for energy technology innovation in the United States. Click here to access the data base.

State-owned Enterprises and Energy Transition Data Base

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are a major force in global energy markets. They control a significant share of hydrocarbon natural resources globally and are a major investor in energy infrastructure, resource development, and energy research and development (R&D). Overall, SOEs from the BRICs countries spent almost $17 billion in energy R&D in 2015, the most recent year of official data, significantly more than what their national governments invested in energy R&D directly. For example, Chinese energy SOEs spent three times more on energy R&D than the Chinese national government did directly, almost all of it on fossil fuels related technology development. Shifting SOE spending away from non-renewable sources of energy to lower carbon technologies could have a major impact on innovation in global energy technology development and the pace and scale of the global energy transition. Climate Policy Lab is developing an original dataset of selected metrics to evaluate the role of SOEs in energy innovation and low carbon transition. Data and analysis will cover the period of 2005 to present. 

Click here to see our progress in developing this database.