Introducing a global registry of fossil fuels to drive corporate and government accountability.

The Global Registry of Fossil Fuels (Registry) is the first attempt to create a global repository of fossil fuel production and reserves at the asset level and to estimate their associated emissions in the context of energy demand scenarios and forecasts. 

The Registry has been created as a policy-neutral tool to improve supply-side transparency and foster multilateral efforts to manage the remaining carbon budget. It is a dynamic, actively updated database that pulls upon major sources of information about fossil fuel reserves, production, and associated emissions and sets those items against a range of publicly available scenarios to deliver insights into the fossil fuel overhang for policymakers, investors, civil society organizations and others. 

This paper highlights the need and rationale for the Registry. The Registry aims to serve decision-useful information that will enable policymakers to address trade-offs needed to manage the rapidly shrinking carbon budget and manage the decline of fossil fuels. It also provides examples of the types of information that a range of stakeholders need to rationalize the process.