How governments can strengthen national energy information systems

The guidebook draws on the quality frameworks developed for general cross-sectoral statistics, on worldwide best practices for strengthening energy statistics and on the IEA's experience with international collaboration. Since 2022, IEA has been conducting consultations with national data providers from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, Kenya, Morocco, Netherlands, Senegal, and the United Kingdom, as well as with experts from international organisations, to identify best practices adopted to design the strategy for energy data collection.

Despite the wealth of methodological guides available for energy data, few guidelines exist that focus on energy data strategy or provide pathways for producing robust energy data. The IEA guidebook fills this gap by offering a comprehensive framework for developing and assessing national energy data. It supports energy data providers and national institutions in aligning with international standards and methodologies.

The framework is structured into three core dimensions:

• PLAN: The strategic dimension, including data needs and users, strategy development, and funding mechanisms
• SETUP: The operational dimension, including legal framework, institutional arrangements, and human, technical, and financial resources
• TRACK: The data processing dimension, including data collection, methodology and quality verification, data management and innovation, and data access and dissemination.

Each dimension is divided into a series of three steps, described with the help of guiding questions, good practices and short- and medium-term recommendations. For example, systematic exchanges with data users are key to maintaining data production relevant (PLAN); countries may establish working groups, involving officials from statistical offices, ministries, and relevant agencies, and design appropriate data governance structures through institutional arrangements (SETUP); innovation is essential to optimising the use of often limited resources, with digitisation offering great and untapped opportunities for data processes (TRACK).

The guidebook also includes a comprehensive annex, which provides excerpts from interviews and written inputs by national stakeholders who were consulted in the process of drafting.