Technical note on the sources and spatial analysis of data available for the Global Gas Flaring Web Platform

The following report describes the development of a web platform for visualizing global flaring activity. Flaring of associated gas by the oil and gas industry is still a major environmental issue despite recent global initiatives to reduce levels of routine flaring to zero by 2030. According to the World Bank, gas flares at oil production sites around the globe burn approximately 140 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, causing more than 350 million tons of CO2 to be emitted to the atmosphere (World Bank, 2015). The Global Flaring Web Platform has been produced for the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) Oil and Gas Initiative in order to provide an overview of global flaring activity; complementing other data sources on flaring available elsewhere on the web and containing additional information related to potential reductions in flaring emissions and in particular black carbon (available via its website).