The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Tracker: A tool to hold governments accountable for their emissions

Who is leading the pushback against fossil fuels? Who is falling behind? The global roadmap towards a just and equitable transition is clearer, thanks to The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Tracker. This open-source interactive tool uses artificial intelligence, crowd-sourcing, and research to map and track supply-side fossil fuel policies around the world.

The world is rapidly recognizing that coal, oil, and gas are the primary drivers of the ecological crisis. With COP27 just around the corner, demands grow louder to stop fossil fuel emissions at their source.

So how do we map out which countries are leaders, and which are laggards, in the fight for climate action?

Today, the University of Sussex, together with the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, is launching a first-of-its-kind tool to hold governments accountable for the fossil fuels they produce. Using various data science methods, the team put together an online interactive global database to monitor policy developments in almost real-time.

Peter Newell, Professor of International Relations at the University of Sussex says:

Mapping and tracking supply-side policies are vital to creating transparency about how governments, states, cities, and private actors are attempting to regulate the production of fossil fuels. This tool will develop and grow alongside the global momentum toward supply-side policies and measures, ultimately becoming an interactive hub for campaigners, advocates, policymakers, and researchers that understand the urgency of phasing out fossil fuels.

• Why do we need a policy tracker?

  The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Tracker aims to identify, gather, filter, categorize and visualize supply-side policies on a global scale, while also providing granular insight within each country on the actors involved in furthering supply-side policies. By exploring both the global supply-side landscape, and the specific contexts within each country, we hope to accelerate efforts to endorse the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and strengthen the movement to stop oil, coal, and gas production.

• What kind of data can it track?

  For now, the tool only monitors supply-side policies such as moratoria, bans & limits, subsidy reductions, and divestment pledges. However, over time, and with your input, the Tracker hopes to expand to cover even more ground.

• Which methods does it use to gather data?

  The tool uses cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) to filter through various data, such as government databases and news articles to automatically identify relevant information to include in the Tracker. Data gathering is a hugely exhaustive and time-consuming process so being able to monitor policy developments while they are happening is a game-changer. It also utilizes crowdsourcing and research to substantiate its work.

  Dr. Fatih Uenal (The Dataist), the Tracker’s lead on Programming, AI, and Design explains: “AI will help us accelerate the data gathering process and thus allows us for an almost real-time monitoring of developments so that stakeholders can react to these in a more-timely fashion.”

• How do I use it?

  Freddie Daley (University of Sussex), who is responsible for the data, methodology, and research on the project, put together a simple video guide on how to navigate the website — from monitoring and dissecting country profiles to downloading and saving the data into your computers.

At the moment, the Tracker has mapped over 1,800 supply-side policy commitments and divestment pledges around the globe from both governments and private organizations.

As this list grows, we invite researchers, advocates, campaigners, and more to help expand this database and ultimately, increase transparency around the supply side of fossil fuel production.

Get in touch with the team at info@fossilfueltracker.org.