In March 2023, with the support of Energy Foundation China, the Institute for Carbon Neutrality at Tsinghua University released this research report explaining how they have expanded a database for global energy infrastructure emissions and estimated the carbon lock-in effect of the infrastructure from 2019 to 2021. It is part of a Tsinghua research series that aims to quantify plant-level carbon emissions of energy infrastructure around the world.

For a previous stage, the researchers used data for nearly three decades to build the Global Infrastructure Emissions Database (GID) for thermal power, steel, and cement plants, as well as for the road transport sector, before they calculated the locked-in emissions of the infrastructure from 2019 to 2020. This report expands the coverage by adding refinery emissions data from 2000 to 2018 into GID and by updating datasets by 2021. Using big data mining and other methods, it also features latest information on energy infrastructure, updates the estimated carbon lock-in effect of global energy infrastructure from 2019 to 2021, and analyzes their carbon emission dynamics. The report then evaluates energy infrastructure development in China and “Belt and Road” countries in recent years and assesses their carbon lock-in effect. Additionally, it analyzes the challenges and opportunities for global low carbon energy transformation and climate governance, based on Paris Agreement goals and the latest carbon budget estimations by the Sixth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Revealing the latest developments in energy infrastructure and their carbon emissions, the authors of the report hope it can help provide scientific evidence for policy recommendations to emerging economies, as the countries try to balance short-term economic growth with long-term climate goals.