Making Resources Meaningful: The GloNZRA Units
Making Energy Meaningful
When it comes to energy, governments, businesses, households and individuals want to know what can be done with the energy — for example, transportation.
Joules of energy, tonnes of carbon, or quantities of minerals mean little to most people. GloNZRA needed measurement units that are meaningful, allowing comparisons between fossil energy, renewable energy, minerals and carbon sequestration potentials — units that give a sense of scale.
Building on the UNFC Foundation
The United Nations Framework Classification
The UNFC makes it possible to compare all types of resources in terms of their:
But GloNZRA Also Needed Units That:
Are focused on the future of energy and development
Allow meaningful comparisons (e.g., between energy and minerals)
Give a sense of scale
Are accessible to a wide audience
Moving Beyond Barrels of Oil Equivalent
The Old Way: BOE
In the past, energy resources were presented in terms of Barrels of Oil Equivalent — the calorific energy a barrel of oil contains.
This reflected the fact that, until recently, economies that wanted to grow needed fossil energy.
BOE focused on energy at source, ignoring that most primary energy is lost in combustion
The New Reality
That is no longer true. According to the International Energy Agency, a majority of global energy investment is now in "clean energy."
Energy systems are transforming, and economic growth is powered by renewable energy.
The future of energy and development is clean energy
The Critical Distinction: Useful Energy vs. Primary Energy
Energy consumers — governments, businesses, households, and individuals — don't care about primary energy. They only care about useful energy: what they can actually do with it.
Since most primary energy measured in BOE is lost in combustion, while a much higher percentage of primary renewable energy is actually "useful energy," GloNZRA focuses on comparing useful energy.
Useful energy is meaningful. Primary energy measured using BOE is not.
The Solution: Vehicle Equivalents
There is a simple, meaningful unit that addresses the use of energy and allows comparisons between fossil, renewable, mineral and sequestration-related resources.
This unit is the Vehicle Equivalent Unit (Veq).
At the Country Level
For countries, we measure:
Fossil Energy
The number of combustion vehicles that can be powered by fossil energy resources
Renewable Energy
The number of electric vehicles that can be powered by renewable energy resources
Minerals
The number of electric vehicles that can be made using mineral resources
Carbon Sequestration
The equivalent number of combustion vehicles taken off the road by sequestration resources
At the Global Level
To be meaningful at the global level, we also need to address global warming, so we use a mix of temperature change and EV equivalent measures:
Fossil Impact
The additional global warming (°C) if global fossil energy resources are burnt
Renewable Potential
The number of EVs that can be powered using global renewable energy resources
Manufacturing Capacity
The number of EVs that can be made using global mineral resources
Sequestration Benefit
The reduction in global warming (°C) if sequestration potentials are used
How the Conversion Works
Fossil VEQ Conversion
The fossil VEQ conversion factor takes the physical quantity (e.g., tonnes of coal or barrels of oil), turns it into energy content, and then uses the efficiency of an ICE vehicle to calculate how many vehicles could be powered for 200,000 km — the average distance traveled over the lifespan of a vehicle.
This standardized distance allows for meaningful comparisons across different resource types and countries.
Why Vehicle Equivalents Work
These GloNZRA units provide a simple, easy-to-understand way of looking at resources available to support our global net zero transition, including the resources available in your country.
Note: The actual transition requires much more sophisticated analysis, such as modeling mineral inputs to EV production and renewable energy technologies. But for providing simple comparability between resources, the number of vehicles is the unit of choice for this study.
About the Assessment
The Global Net Zero Resources Assessment is a group of volunteers, working together, to make a global assessment of:
Fossil energy resources driving climate change
Renewable energy resources needed to substitute for fossil energy and meet new energy demand
Minerals needed to produce renewable energy technologies and the technologies to use this energy
Carbon sequestration potentials available to remove excess greenhouse gases from the atmosphere
Acknowledgements
GloNZRA is an initiative made up of volunteers from the Tiaki Institute (New Zealand), Beat Cortex (Hungary) and the Resource Management Young Members Group (RMYMG - international).