Researchers call IEA to free its data from costly paywalls

Scientists urged the IEA to remove paywalls from its data to help global scientific research on energy transition

Academics have called the International Energy Agency to unlock its data and make it available without the need of paying costly fees.

Researchers claim that although the IEA is publicly funded by Energy Ministries most of its data are locked up behind paywalls.

They added the reason that the IEA puts much of its data behind paywalls is that the funders made it a requirement that it raises a small share of its budget through licensed data sales.

The agency provides important energy data that is not available elsewhere – based on this data the IEA creates reports helping countries and other organisations to inform their energy transition policies and investments.

According to the campaigners, in 2018, the annual budget of the IEA was €27.8 million (£23.6m) and revenues from its data and publication sales finance more than one-fifth of its annual budget.

Max Roser and Hannah Ritchie said the high costs of the data lead to many researchers being excluded from the energy and climate dialogue and therefore form a barrier that hinders the IEA in its efforts to achieve its own mission.

An IEA spokesperson told ELN: We are committed to enhancing and expanding data access, and as a result have been implementing in recent years a new policy to make more and more data and analysis available without charge, including more country and sectoral data and projections.

“This also includes all our reports and analysis so far this year, including the net zero by 2050 roadmap and its associated data projections. Our World Energy Outlook 2021 is also available for free.

“However, our data sales form an essential part of our operational budget, allowing the IEA to deliver on its essential mandates. The bulk of these sales are to private energy companies, financial institutions and consultancies.

“We provide free of charge access to our data and analysis to all governments and to the press, and offer either free of charge access or deep discounts to not-for-profit organizations, researchers and academics.”

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