International Working Conference: Building a Primary Product-level Emissions Data Platform

• Location: Amstel Hotel, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Dates: Monday 13 October and Tuesday 14 October, 2025

Overview

Our objective at the end of the conference is a working plan for a worldwide platform that can credibly track product-level emissions data across borders and sectors. This is a working conference where participants actively contribute to the outcome.

The conference will take place in Amsterdam on Monday 13 October to Tuesday 14 October 2025, beginning lunch at 12:00 CET on Monday and concluding around 16:00 CET on Tuesday.

Workshop highlights include:

• 90-minute working sessions combining expert framing with structured problem-solving.
• Deep dives on accounting principles, data architecture, and governance.
• Evening boat tour, dinner, and keynote on Monday.

Please note that, owing to capacity restraints, participation in person as contributing expert is by-invitation only. 

Context and Mission

We urgently need an accounting system for product-level emissions that delivers accurate, timely, comparable, fungible, and verifiable numbers. Such a system can provide governments and businesses with the information required to design sensible trade and decarbonisation policies, while remaining policy-agnostic in its core function.

Our mission is to catalyse the development of a universal repository for cradle-to-gate product emissions data. This hub will iteratively improve in accuracy, coverage, and timeliness, accelerating the adoption of an emissions accounting system that can be trusted globally.

Over the past two years, numerous bilateral and multilateral conversations have taken place with key actors who bring unique expertise in data architecture, tokenisation, statistics, lifecycle assessment, data standardisation, and governance. Now is the time to bring these players together in one room to move forward in a co-ordinated and rapid way.

What the Data Hub Will Do

The envisioned Data Hub will serve as a trusted, global repository that:

• Collects product-level data at least at the HS6 classification, moving toward greater granularity (HS8, HS10).
• Provides reliable emissions substitutes where primary company data is unavailable.
• Incorporates company-reported primary emissions data for outputs, improving accuracy over time.
• Publishes statistical distributions of emissions data for each product class.
• Supports policy frameworks (e.g., EU CBAM, US FPFA) by providing transparent and standardised information. 

Proposed Features of the Data Model

• Classification: Products initially classified at HS6, working toward finer granularity.
• Granularity: Facility-level, time-stamped emissions data where possible.
• Units: Standardised reporting in grams of CO₂ (or other GHGs) per unit of output.
• Metadata: Sources, assurance status, data-sharing permissions, and contextual information.
• Data Sources: Both citizen-generated (company submissions) and automated feeds from regulatory filings.
• Starting Values: Early years may rely on top-down estimates (such as lifecycle assessments), quickly replaced by primary data.
• Data Ownership: Remains with contributing companies.
• Assurance: Metadata includes verification status, but the Hub itself does not perform verification.
• Data Publication: Public release at the lowest permissible aggregation, with private secure access for authorised users.

Contact

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at sfs@dnb.nl .

Hosted by

Argonne National Laboratory, Bank of International Settlements Irving Fisher Committee on Central Bank Statistics, De Nederlandsche Bank, and the University of Oxford Blavatnik School of Government

• Operating partner: E-ledgers Institute