The quality of energy intensity indicators for international comparison inthe iron and steel industry

International comparison of energy intensity is receiving increased scienti fic and political attention. International comparisons may help in identify ing the potentials for energy intensity reduction. Knowledge of these reduc tion potentials can be used as the basis of national policies to reduce ene rgy intensity, and also for designing international actions to curb the thr eats of climate change. Although we showed in a previous paper that indicat ors based on physical production data are well suited for international com parison of energy intensity, many potential problems exist regarding the av ailability and quality of energy and production data needed for such indica tors. We studied these data problems for physical energy intensity indicato rs for the iron and steel industry. We started by comparing the energy data from four international data sources. It turned out that quite some mistak es are made in the reported energy data, which makes reliable international comparison of countries difficult. The available production data, and the methodology of using physical production indicators, turned out to be less problematic. We found that the accuracy of physical energy intensity indica tors is, to a large extent, determined by the accuracy of the energy consum ption data used. We recommend that energy analysts be careful in using ener gy data for international comparisons. We also recommend that national and international statistical organizations put more effort in assuring the qua lity of the energy consumption data in their publications. (C) 2001 Elsevie r Science Ltd. All rights reserved.