World Resources Institute (WRI)

The World Resources Institute (WRI) is a global resource organization developing research-based solutions to sustain natural resources.  Its work at the intersection of the environment and development contains topic areas on climate, energy, food, forests, water, sustainable cities and transport, business, economics, finance, and governance.  Its main contributions include publications, blogs, news, and research projects containing charts, graphs, datasets, data visualizations, maps, presentations, and videos available for public access.  Its publications span from 1984 to 2016.  IFs originally obtained energy series data from WRI’s Earthtrends database, though WRI later discontinued this dataset.  WRI now provides emissions and climate data via its Climate Analysis Indicators Tool (CAIT) data explorer that is available for download.  The website is accessible via http://www.wri.org//.

Earthtrends Database

Earthtrends, launched by World Resources Institute (WRI) in 2001, was a specialized data source for environmental and sustainable development information.  Earthtrends gathered data from leading statistical agencies like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), etc., along with WRI.  To facilitate the comparison of data from different sources, Earthtrends supplemented its content with detailed metadata that reported on research methodologies and evaluated the information’s reliability.

Earthtrends organized its data into ten topic areas, namely agriculture and food, biodiversity and protected area, climate and atmosphere, coastal and marine ecosystems, economics, energy and resources, environmental governance and drylands, population, and water resources and freshwater ecosystem.  Most series in the Earthtrends database covered time-series information since 1960.  Earthtrends contained more than 200 country profiles for over 500 variables.  Earthtrends also included data tables, maps, and feature stories on a variety of environmental, social, and economic topics.  Some financial data series of Earthtrends database from previous years, used in IFs analyses, were converted into billion US$ from current prices at US$, and some series related to population were transformed into million figures.

Unfortunately, while the Earthtrends website and database enjoyed many years of popularity and was a source of numerous IFs data series, it was later discontinued.  WRI no longer maintains the Earthtrends website and database, nor does anywhere else.

Climate Analysis Indicators Tool (CAIT)

The Climate Analysis Indicators Tool (CAIT) is the climate data explorer of WRI and the large-scale data source now available through its website.  It provides free access to comprehensive, reliable, and comparable greenhouse gas emissions data sets, as well as other climate-relevant indicators.  CAIT has received regular use within news articles, policy briefs, government documents, and policy discussions within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and other forums.

CAIT Historic database allows for easy access, analysis, and visualization of the latest available international greenhouse gas emissions data.  It includes information for 186 countries and 50 U.S. states over 160 years.  CAIT currently includes four data collections: Country GHG Emissions, US State GHG Emissions, Country Clean Technology Data, and UNFCCC Annex I GHG Emissions.  These include over 50 indicators, covering the 1850-2011 time range.  Carbon dioxide emissions data covers 1850-2012 and data for multi-sector greenhouse gas emissions range from 1990-2012. 

CAIT emissions data covers a multitude of economic sectors such as energy, industrial processes, agriculture, transportation, and land use, among others.  CAIT greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions data includes six gases, including CO₂ and five non-CO2 gases (methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6)—with HFCs, PFCs, and SF6 presented in CAIT as “F-gas emissions”).  CAIT derives its data from a variety of data sources, including the International Energy Agency (IEA), U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), etc.  The data is available for download at http://www.wri.org/resources/data-sets/cait-historical-emissions-data-countries-us-states-unfccc. 

A document detailing CAIT sources and methodology regarding its emission data is available at http://cait.wri.org/docs/CAIT2.0_CountryGHG_Methods.pdf.  Aside from continuing to update existing data, CAIT may provide data on granular energy consumption/production, additional non-CO₂ sources, power plants, and clean energy policy in the future.

Note: The original CAIT web site (online from December 2003 through May 2012) was victim of a hacking incident that took it offline and resulted in a near total loss of its file system and database.  The new version of the website launched in July 2013.

Citation

CAIT Climate Data Explorer.  2015. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute.  Available online at: http://cait.wri.org

Data pulled from WRI

DataDict 720

Table	Group	Definition	Source	Last IFs Update	UsedInPreprocessor	Years
SeriesEnBalInd	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy balance (consumption) in industrial	WRI CD 98		No
SeriesEnBalRes	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy balance (consumption) in residential	WRI CD 98		No
SeriesEnBalTrans	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy balance (consumption) in transportion	WRI CD 98		No
SeriesEnConCommerc	Energy, Infrastructure	Commercial energy consumption	WRI CD 98		No
SeriesEnConTrad	Energy, Infrastructure	Traditional energy consumption	WRI CD 98		No
SeriesEnExports	Energy, Infrastructure, Trade	Energy exports	WRI CD 98		No
SeriesEnImports	Energy, Infrastructure, Trade	Energy imports	WRI CD 98		No
SeriesEnProdCoal	Energy, Infrastructure	Coal production	WRI CD 98		Yes
SeriesEnProdGas	Energy, Infrastructure	Natural gas production	WRI CD 00-01		Yes
SeriesEnProdNuclear	Energy, Infrastructure	Nuclear production	WRI CD 98; 1960 guestimated		No
SeriesEnProdOil	Energy, Infrastructure	Oil production	WRI CD 98		Yes
SeriesEnReserHyd	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy reserves, hydro	WRI Annual		Yes
SeriesLandUrban&Built	Environment, Infrastructure	Land, urban and built-up areas	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/		Yes
SeriesWaterGroundRechargeWRI	Environment, Infrastructure, Water	Annual groundwater recharge	WRI CD 98		No
SeriesAgGrainLiv%GrainCon	Agriculture	Grain fed to livestock as % of total grain consumption	WRI online 2012	12/2011	Yes
SeriesEmissionsCO	Environment	Carbon monoxide emissions	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesEmissionsCO21900to1999Cum	Environment	CO2 cumulative emissions from 1900 through 1999	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesEmissionsCO2fromAgric	Environment	CO2/GHG emissions from agriculture, forestry, fishing	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesEmissionsCO2fromCoal	Environment	CO2 emissions from coal	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesEmissionsCO2fromElec	Environment	CO2/GHG emissions from public electricity and heat	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesEmissionsCO2fromGas	Environment	CO2 emissions from gas	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesEmissionsCO2fromIndCons	Environment	CO2/GHG emissions from industry, construction	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesEmissionsCO2fromOil	Environment	CO2 emissions from oil	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesEmissionsCO2fromRes	Environment	CO2/GHG emissions from residential sources	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesEmissionsCO2fromRoadTrans	Environment	CO2/GHG emissions from road transportation	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesEmissionsCO2fromTrans	Environment	CO2/GHG emissions from transportation, internal	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesEnConAgric	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy consumption, agricultural	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesEnConComPubSer	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy consumption, commercial and public services	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesEnConElecWRI	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy consumption, electrical	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesEnConIndIronSteel	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy consumption, iron and steel industry subtotal	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesEnConIndMining	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy consumption, mining and quarrying subtotal	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesEnConIndTot	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy consumption, total industry	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesEnConPhoto	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy consumption, photovoltaic solar	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	Yes
SeriesEnConRes	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy consumption, residential	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesEnConSolarTherm	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy consumption, solar thermal	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesEnConTransDomAir	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy consumption, domestic air transportation	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesEnConTransIntlAir	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy consumption, international air transportation	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesEnConTransTot	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy consumption, total transportation	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesEnConWind	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy consumption, wind	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	Yes
SeriesEnProdGeoTherm	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy production, geothermal	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	Yes
SeriesEnProdSolar	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy production, solar	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	Yes
SeriesEnProdTideWave	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy production, tide, wave, and water	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	Yes
SeriesEnvKyotoStatus	Government	Kyoto Protocol status (1=not signatory; 2=signatory; 3=ratified))	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesFreedomofInformation	Government	Freedom of information (1=pending; 2 = in effect)	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesLandCoastLength	Environment, Infrastructure	Length of coastlines	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesLandDisputedSeas	Environment, Infrastructure	Area of disputed seas	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesLandEEZ	Environment, Infrastructure	Area of marine exclusive economic zone	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesLandForest%Orig	Environment, Infrastructure	Original forest area (pre-human intervention) as percent of total land area	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesWaterAnIntlRenResources	Environment, Infrastructure, Water	Annually internally renewable water resources	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesWaterAnRenResourcesOld	Environment, Infrastructure, Water	Annually renewable water resources	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	Yes
SeriesWaterDesalination	Environment, Infrastructure, Water	Annually production of desalinated water in million cubic meters (/1000 for cubic km)	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesWaterFlowsFromOthers	Environment, Infrastructure, Water	Water flows from other countries, annually	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesWaterFlowsToOthers	Environment, Infrastructure, Water	Water flows to other countries, annually	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesWaterGroundWithdraw%Recharge	Environment, Infrastructure, Water	Annual groundwater withdrawals as a percent of recharge rate (asst years)	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesWaterGroundWithdrawal	Environment, Infrastructure, Water	Annual groundwater withdrawals(asst years)	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/11	No
SeriesNGOs	SocioPolitical	Number of NGOs	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/12	No
SeriesNGOsperMillionPop	SocioPolitical	NGOs per million population	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2002/12	No
SeriesMemINGO	SocioPolitical	INGOs per million population	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2004/04	No
SeriesAgFish%Protein	Agriculture	Fish protein as percent of total supply	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2005/04	No
SeriesEnConCoal	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy consumption, coal	WRI CD 98;WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2005/04	No
SeriesEnConGas	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy consumption, natural gas	WRI CD 98;WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2005/04	No
SeriesEnConHydro	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy consumption, hydro-electric	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2005/04	No
SeriesEnConOil	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy consumption, oil and natural gas liquids	WRI CD 98;WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2005/04	No
SeriesEnConSolarWindWaveGeo	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy consumption, solar, wind, wave, geothermal	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2005/04	No
SeriesEnConTotal	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy consumption, total all sources	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2005/04	No
SeriesEnExportsOil	Energy, Infrastructure, Trade	Energy exports, oil	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2005/04	No
SeriesEnImportsOil	Energy, Infrastructure, Trade	Energy imports, oil	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2005/04	No
SeriesCalPCapAnimal	SocioPolitical	Calorie consumption per capita per day from animals	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2005/06	No
SeriesEnConResperCapKg	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy consumption, residential per capita	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2006/02	No
SeriesEnConTransRoad	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy consumption, road transportation	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2006/03	No
SeriesEnConResperCap	Energy, Infrastructure	Energy consumption, residential per capita	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2006/04	No
SeriesEnExportsNGas	Energy, Infrastructure, Trade	Energy exports, natural gas	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2006/06	No
SeriesEnImportsNGas	Energy, Infrastructure, Trade	Energy imports, natural gas	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2006/06	No
SeriesEmissionsCO2per2000$PPPWRI	Environment	CO2 emissions per dollar of GDP at 2000$ PPP	WRI Earthtrends	2006/08	No
SeriesEmissionsCO2WRI	Environment	Carbon dioxide emissions	WRI Earthtrends	2006/08	No
SeriesEnExportsCoal	Energy, Infrastructure, Trade	Energy exports, coal	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2006/09	No
SeriesEnImportsCoal	Energy, Infrastructure, Trade	Energy imports, coal	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2006/11	No
SeriesWaterAnWithdrawals	Environment, Infrastructure, Water	Annual water withdrawals/use (1990=70-99;2000=update, mostly 2000)	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/; Source: Pacific Institute, www.worldwater.org/data.html	2008/01	Yes
SeriesAgConMeat	Agriculture	Meat consumption	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2008/05	No
SeriesAgFishAquaCatchTot	Agriculture	Fish production totals, aquaculture and capture	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2009/07/25	No
SeriesAgFishAquaTotal	Agriculture	Aquaculture, coastal and marine total fish production	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2009/07/25	No
SeriesAgFishExpt	Agriculture, Trade	Fish, export value	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2009/07/25	No
SeriesAgFishInlandProd	Agriculture	Fish capture, inland	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2009/07/25	No
SeriesWaterPovIndex	Agriculture, Infrastructure, Environment, Water	Water Poverty Index, 0 and 100, low score indicates water poverty	WRI	2010/02/19	No
SeriesAgFishAquaInland	Agriculture	Aquaculture, inland	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2010/11/23	No
SeriesAgFishAquaMarine	Agriculture	Aquaculture, marine fish catch	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2010/11/23	No
SeriesAIDSDths	Population	AIDS-related deaths	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2010/11/23	No
SeriesLandCerealHarvest	Agriculture	Land area used for cereals	WRI	2012/03/02	No
SeriesLandForest%DecadeChange	Environment, Infrastructure	Annual percentage change in forest area	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2012/03/02	No
SeriesLandIrrigated	Environment, Infrastructure, Water	Land irrigated	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2012/03/02	No
SeriesWaterAnFreshWith%Resources	Environment, Infrastructure, Water	Annual water freshwater withdrawals as a percent of resources (asst years)	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2012/03/02	No
SeriesWaterAnRenResources	Environment, Infrastructure, Water	Annually renewable water resources	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2012/03/02	Yes
SeriesAgFishImpt	Agriculture, Trade	Fish, import value	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2012/03/04	No
SeriesAidCerealDon	Agriculture	Cereal donations	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2012/03/04	No
SeriesAidCerealRec	Agriculture	Cereal gifts/aid received	WRI Earthtrends http://earthtrends.wri.org/	2012/03/04	No