What does the resource contain?
The Climate and Energy Policy Ontology (CEPO) is a common set of definitions and relationships which can be used to structure information about climate and energy policy instruments. It was created as a collaborative effort between different researchers, from academia and civil society, to map and clearly define different kinds of policy instruments.
CEPO encompasses instruments at a sufficient level of detail to code in-depth policy data. For example, rather than coding all “tax instruments” together, CEPO differentiates between a tax reduction, tax deduction, tax credit, tax exemption, and tax rebate (all of which are types of tax incentives). This level of granularity is important in being able to compare policies across jurisdictions and time. In order to ensure interoperability with other ontologies, it makes use of the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) and its principles. It also maps its alignment with the CPDB and CPR policy instrument typologies.
How can the resource be applied?
- Code texts with information about the policy instruments that they contain.
- Use coded policy documents to answer questions such as:
- Which countries tend to use the most regulatory instruments vs economic instruments to introduce electric vehicles?
- What are the most common types of tax incentives to promote renewable energy, and how have these changed over time?
- Which policy instruments (or mixes of policy instruments) have been the most effective at promoting decarbonization outcomes (emissions reductions, growth in clean energy generation, etc.)?
- How do energy scenarios change when using real policy data on spatial regulations instead of assumptions?
Credits
This resource was developed by:
- Climate Policy Atlas research team: Silvia Weko, Puru Malhotra, Aksornchan Chaianong, Ioannis Milioritsas, Franziska Bold, Johan Lilliestam
- Additional contributors to CEPO development: German Bersalli, Ludwig Hülk, Mirjam Stappel, Amanda Wein, Open Energy Ontology developer team, Climate Policy Radar team