Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística

About the publication - Environment and Climate Change Statistics: recommendations and initiatives

The publication Environment and Climate Change Statistics: recommendations and initiatives introduces the major international benchmarks on environmental statistics - including those related to climate change - and suggests actions required to develop a work plan for this agenda. Based on a preliminary analysis of the data coverage and taking into account the principles of the official statistics, it was possible to look into the situation of the available statistics and suggest elements for the creation of a collegiate instance. This structure is key for the development of an integrated agenda that addresses several dimensions of the environment and climate change statistics, promoting the cooperation between the information producers and users. The challenge involved in the production of information to better understand the environmental issue and its impacts is in designing feasible indicators and statistics that can be systematically and continuously compiled for the monitoring of public policies. Organized into three chapters, the publication is inserted in this perspective by encouraging the discussion on strategies of governance, systematization and improvement of these data in Brazil.

 The first chapter introduces the major benchmarks on how to organize these data, which are a multidimensional and complex area, cutting across a number of public policies and, consequently, the statistical production. In the context of the official statistics, the second chapter introduces the concepts related to the standardization, interoperability and metadata, key to ensure the adoption of compliance mechanisms and standards in order to provide geospatial and statistical information in an integrated way. This chapter also addresses the complexity of the institutional structure related to environmental and climate change issues.

 The third chapter includes a preliminary survey, based on two tools approved by the United Nations Statistical Commission, which are the Framework for the Development of Environment Statistics (FDES 2013) and the 2022 Global Set of Climate Change Statistics and Indicators.

 Based on this preliminary assessment, the IBGE invites other institutions responsible for the production of data to join efforts to develop a set of statistics and indicators aimed at the national scenario. Therefore, other areas of the statistical production, like the environmental-economic accounts, can benefit from this cooperation.