United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC)

UNSC is the governing body that mandated, developed and ultimately adopted IRES as an international statistical standard.

History with energy statistics

The Commission discussed energy statistics as part of economic statistics since its inception, putting it on its agenda as a separate item in the aftermath of the early-1970s energy crisis and requesting a special report [IRES, Ch. I, para. 1.4, PDF p. 15, 2018]. At its 19th session (1976), it received the resulting Secretary-General report, agreed that developing a system of integrated energy statistics should be a high priority, adopted energy balances as the key coordination instrument, and recommended preparing a standard international classification for energy statistics [IRES, Ch. I, para. 1.5, PDF p. 15, 2018]. At its 20th session (1979), it welcomed UNSD’s report on basic concepts and methods for circulation; at its 24th session (1987) it recommended a handbook on conversion factors and units of measurement [IRES, Ch. I, para. 1.6, PDF p. 15, 2018].

The 2005–2006 restructuring

At its 36th session (2005), the Commission undertook a programme review based on a report by Statistics Norway (E/CN.3/2005/3) and recognized the need to develop energy statistics as official statistics and revise the existing recommendations [IRES, Ch. I, para. 1.8, PDF p. 16, 2018]. At its 37th session (2006), it commended progress and supported the establishment and mandate of the Oslo Group on Energy Statistics and the Intersecretariat Working Group on Energy Statistics (InterEnerStat), requesting proper coordination mechanisms between them [IRES, Ch. I, para. 1.10, PDF p. 16, 2018].

Adoption and revision governance

The Commission adopted IRES as a statistical standard at its 42nd session, February 2011 [IRES, Ch. I, para. 1.12, PDF p. 16, 2018]. Under the ongoing revision process, any substantive change to IRES is discussed with countries and relevant working groups, endorsed by the Expert Group on Energy Statistics (EGES), and submitted to the Commission for adoption [IRES, Ch. I, para. 1.51, PDF p. 28, 2018].