Data
The Fossil Fuel Atlas consolidates large volumes of freely available spatial data into an open-access mapping portal, offering access to a wide range of fossil fuels, energy, social and ecological data sets.
The Fossil Fuel Atlas’s power lies in how it can show large volumes of freely available information about fossil fuels, energy, social, ecological and other factors as geographical data on maps.
It makes Geographical information Systems (GIS) accessible to everyone through an easy-to-use tool that can show the impacts of fossil fuel production.
The better the information that can be shown in the maps, the more powerful our analysis and stories.
The information (‘datasets’) on the Fossil Fuel Atlas stem from peer-reviewed research, and from reputable organizations with solid expertise in respective area.
Fossil Fuel and Energy Data
The Fossil Fuel Atlas’ data sets include:
- Global coal mines – information on 4200 mines, over 2000 owners, and annual production of 7.9 billion tonnes across 70 countries
- Global oil and gas extraction – information on 5089 active oil and gas extraction areas, 149 areas under development, and 142 oil/gas discoveries
- Global gas infrastructure – information on 210,400km of gas pipelines in development, as well as methane and hydrogen gas pipelines
- Global oil infrastructure – information on 439,000km of oil pipelines, and 1165km of oil pipeline projects
These foundational data sets are provided primarily from Global Energy Monitor’s extensive set of global trackers and related tools, and are regularly maintained and expanded.
As well as data on fossil fuels, the Fossil Fuel Atlas also includes data sets on wind and solar renewable energy potential. These will be continually updated and expanded to enable identification and build support for clean energy solutions.
Social and Ecological Data
- Social data covers a range of topics including indigenous and community lands; global crop lands; population density and where people live; major cities and settlements; culturally protected areas and more.
- Ecological data includes coverage of global forests; areas of global significance for biodiversity conservation, water conservation and carbon storage; major rivers, lakes and wetlands; coastal mangrove ecosystems; coral reef ecosystems; fish species distributions.
Sources of Data
Data is drawn from multiple sources including various United Nations programmes; World Database of Protected areas; Global Land Analysis and Discovery Lab; Global Mangrove Watch & Global Forest Watch; European Space Agency; NASA; Montana State University forest databases; individual academic articles (e.g. global croplands).
Data Development
The Fossil Fuel Atlas is continually improving existing data sets and developing new ones to address needs identified by partners and users of the platform.
Through collaboration we can continuously expand data to cover new areas.
Recent developments including refinements of oil and gas blocks; preparation of new data sets on ecologically and biologically significant marine areas; data on energy transmission infrastructure and clean energy potential, and case-level data improvements to support specific projects.
We will continue to expand the range of available data sets with the goal of making them easily accessible to the widest possible audience.
Licensing, Permissions and Privacy
The Fossil Fuel Atlas is committed to democratizing access to information and seeks to provide data and other content with as few limitations and constraints as possible, while protecting privacy. Please see here for more information on licensing and permissions and data privacy policy.
Download Data
Data on the Fossil Fuel Atlas is available for you to download and use. Please refer to the licensing and permissions page for more information. We seek to make data available with as few limitations as possible. Where data is provided by an external provider, please refer to the original data source to determine availability and licensing conditions.
