Closing the data gaps on climate change: Remarks by EU Commissioner Dombrovskis

Dear Sir Professor Skea, dear Dr Köhler-Geib, dear Dr Kotzeva, dear Ms Mann, dear conference participants,

Good afternoon.

This is my first opportunity to address the community of European statisticians in my new role as Commissioner for Economy and Productivity; Implementation and Simplification, where I am also responsible for Eurostat.

I am pleased to be here today at this important conference on the subject of ‘data gaps on climate change’, organised by the European Statistical Forum.

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time. Every year scientists remind us about global warming and its effects. Every year we witness dramatic, climate-related events in every part of the world. Climate change affects every corner of Europe.

The costs of natural disasters are terrible both in terms of lives lost and material damage. The European Union is a global leader in the fight against this climate emergency.

In 2019, the European Commission presented the European Green Deal as one of its key priorities. Since then, the strategy has been fleshed out by the 2021 European Climate Law, writing into legislation the goal for Europe’s economy and society to become climate-neutral by 2050, as well as by the 2023 ‘Fit for 55′ package, which includes a set of measures for reaching the EU’s climate objectives.

Now that our strategy is well established, the coming years will be about implementation. This will require effective and well calibrated policies.

President Von der Leyen has identified competitiveness as a priority for the current European Commission. Because climate change affects our economies and our economies affect climate change, there clearly is a link between tackling climate change and improving Europe’s competitiveness.

Many economic activities emit greenhouse gases and are affected by climate change. This is the case, in particular, for manufacturing and construction, but not only. For instance, agriculture in many areas of Europe is suffering as a result of unpredictable weather, water scarcity, and storm-related damages.

Water-intensive and climate-sensitive cultivation is being displaced, affecting jobs and trade. Tourism is another example: tourists choose different travel destinations and different times for their holidays. Those aspects are also highly relevant for investment and related financial activities.

In many instances, tackling climate change and improving competitiveness go hand in hand. In other cases, however, there are trade-offs, especially in the short run. Therefore, it will be key to carefully design policies in a way that maximises the positive impacts and minimises trade-offs.

Furthermore, Europe needs to improve its resilience against climate related risks. We need to assess the infrastructure and economic activities in sensitive areas, such as those at risk of flooding and coastal regions.

Infrastructure is increasingly vulnerable to extreme temperatures and natural disasters. Life in our cities can get suffocating in summer. Children, senior citizens, and vulnerable people suffer the most, as well as outdoor workers.

All of this raises demands for investment from both private and public sources. Investment in affordable clean energy, construction, manufacturing and transportation, as well as innovative technologies.

Therefore, an increasing proportion of the European Commission’s budget is directed towards climate-related objectives, and, for example, 37% of the Recovery and Resilience facility’s resources are earmarked for them.

A lot is at stake. Our climate policies will have an impact on all Europeans and all our companies. It will be key to design our policies and direct our investments in the best way possible.

This brings me to the main point of my intervention, namely the data needed to design, monitor and evaluate climate policies. The old saying is that ‘you cannot control what you cannot measure’. This also applies to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The questions we should focus on in this conference are: which official statistics do we already have about climate change and their impact, and which additional official statistics do we need?

The data challenge is two-fold: first, climate change is one of the most important issues and we do not have enough data about it; second, climate change is unfolding in front of us in real time and the potential data gap is developing fast.

Over the last decades, the scientific community has led the way in informing the world about climate change. We have here today our honoured guest, Sir Professor Skea, the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who will deliver the keynote speech. The scientific work on climate change has led to a wealth of data on greenhouse gas emissions.

Today, this is complemented by statistical data on energy use for the purposes of policymaking. Our information base for the climate change challenge needs to move beyond greenhouse gas emissions and energy use.

Policymakers need quantitative information about the clean transition, about the transformations that our economies and societies are making to reach carbon neutrality in the future. As the European statistical community, your organisations are well placed to develop those data, building on your robust methodologies, cooperative approaches and quality frameworks, and in a cost-efficient way.

Your organisations already produce some important statistics in the climate change field, but the discussion is moving on to what new data are necessary and how data gaps can be addressed.

Let me mention some indicative examples to consider:

• The investments being made to de-carbonise our economy, for example, renewable energy and its associated financing sources and financial risks;
• The contributions to global climate financing;
• The impact of climate change and green transformation on fairness and inequalities regarding different  parts of the population;
• The rolling out of clean transportation and clean urban mobility;
• The detailed impact of climate-related policies on international trade;

Furthermore, the European statistical community could provide methodological advice and support to other data producers and stakeholders in some specific areas, based on your community’s expertise on statistical quality frameworks.

When it comes to climate change, some of the data we need are global in nature, such as global temperatures, global emissions of greenhouse gases, and rising sea levels, whereas other data are very local, like those on flooded areas, or damage caused by storms.

High quality global data require international standards to ensure comparability. European statisticians have extensive experience in the development of common standards and close collaboration with international organisations such as the UN, OECD and IMF, which are represented here today.

The European statistical community is well placed to contribute to the establishment of global standards for the production of global data.

Local data, conversely, is also highly relevant, as it can relate to areas where businesses or dwellings are exposed to floods, or where farming structures are exposed to drought.

Producing local data is an opportunity to explore innovative technologies for statistics, such as earth observation and geo-localised data sources.

There is a body of experimental and official work taking shape, and this conference will hear about some examples.

I encourage you to speed up these developments and apply new techniques to climate change data needs as well. I know some of these new statistics will be easier to produce than others. I therefore invite you to exchange views on work priorities at this conference, where we have the opportunity for a strategic dialogue between senior statisticians from National Statistical Institutes and National Central Banks.

These two communities can make remarkable progress together, as we have seen in other areas of official statistics. I am pleased to see that, at this conference, you will learn from the statistical activities of international organisations, and about the European Commission’s development of its sustainability taxonomy and data platform.

You will also have the opportunity to hear from the business community, who are our important partners in this endeavour. And, indeed, we are looking forward to learning from each of you through your contributions to the discussions.

To conclude, we need high quality statistical information about climate change and its impact. We need this information as the basis for addressing our shared European goals, for ensuring the resilience of our economies and societies, and for boosting Europe’s competitiveness.

Statisticians can — and must — contribute fully to the challenge.

I wish you a fruitful conference.

Thank you very much

Source – EU Commission