Environment Statistics

The Global Set is a comprehensive statistical framework, with statistics, indicators and metadata, designed to support countries in preparing their own sets according to their individual concerns, priorities and resources. It assists countries embarking on the development of climate change statistics programmes by providing the scope and coverage on what is considered relevant to climate change and required for reporting under the Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It can also assist countries already involved in this area of statistics by providing a reference list.

The Global Set and its metadata, updated on 5 June 2026, should be accessed as introduced in the Climate Change Statistics and Indicators Self-Assessment Tool (CISAT) Part II. The original version and full description of the Global Set and its metadata are included in the Background document to the Report of the Secretary-General, entitled Global Set and metadata.

The Global Set was adopted at the fifty-third session of the United Nations Statistical Commission (in March 2022). See decision 53/116, Climate Change Statistics, in the Final Report. At its 57th session (2026), the Commission endorsed the improvements to the Global Set indicators for climate and health, and related metadata, see decision 57/109 in this session's Final Report.

More information on the recent developments and planned activities are available in the Report of the Secretary-General to the Statistical Commission. These reports are translated into the six UN languages. All reports to and from the Statistical Commission sessions can be accessed from the first link below. National and regional examples of climate change publications can be accessed from the second link.

          UNSD activities on Climate Change Statistics
           Climate Change Statistics Reports

Following the 2022 adoption of the Global Set, UNSD has continued to collaborate with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to ensure the consistent and strengthened implementation of the Global Set in countries. This will continue assisting member states' national statistical offices (NSOs) in collaboration with national climate policy authorities to be able, inter alia, to:

• develop national climate change statistical programmes;
• strengthen the capacity to monitor climate change impacts, adaptation and mitigation actions;
• increase involvement in climate change related data collection and submission of indicators to UNFCCC for supporting the implementation of the Paris Agreement; and
• produce and disseminate climate change statistics via dedicated reports, websites and other means.

To support countries, UNSD with the help of consultants developed Implementation Guidelines and the Climate Change Statistics and Indicators Self-Assessment Tool (CISAT), which were disseminated and discussed at length at the 9th meeting of the Expert Group on Environment Statistics (25-28 October 2022). The CISAT is essential since it will assist countries to complete an assessment of the needed and available resources as a first step towards developing a national programme on climate change statistics.

It is recommended that NSOs undertake this first step in close collaboration with the national climate policy authority and other stakeholders. The key questions to be considered as part of the self-assessment enquire about the relevance, data availability and methodological soundness of each indicator/statistic included in the Global Set. The self-assessment structure was drafted as closely aligned as possible to the FDES-ESSAT to enable continuity and ease of transfer of the outputs between the two tools.

The Implementation Guidelines for the Global Set aim to help countries improve the monitoring of climate change, its impacts and response actions by better informing the national climate policy authorities about the benefits of official statistics and by guiding the NSO to better engage in the area of climate change. The Guidelines refer to the relevant frameworks, methods, guidelines, handbooks, etc. which assists with closer engagement on both sides. The Guidelines specify the key steps needed to set up national processes to produce climate change statistics in response to national policies while striving to improve the comparability of data internationally. This promotes the links between statistics and policy-making, and thus contributes to better monitor the evolution of climate change, as well as the way countries progress toward its mitigation and adapt to its adverse effects.