Greenhouse gas emissions in Estonia have dropped 40% over the last ten years, but with the European energy crisis and the renewed competitiveness of oil shale, emissions have been on an upward trend again since 2021. At the same time, we are seeing a strong reduction in emission volumes in Estonia’s processing industry, says the Foresight Centre report “Trends of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Estonia and the European Union”, which was published today.
News
How can we make the data collected by the public sector more useful for both the Estonian society and every individual is the question asked at the Foresight Centre data conference “How could data serve us better?”.
What will the electricity consumption of households be like in the future and how to make it more sustainable and manageable? These were the questions asked at the Foresight Centre online seminar “How will expectations of future home life change the energy demand: implications for demand management”, held on 20 October.
Technical access restrictions, such as CAPCHAs and multiple download restrictions, are hindering the availability and refining of public information, shows the study “Trends in Access to Public Sector Information” that will be published by the Foresight Centre on Tuesday, 18 October.
According to the study “Trends in access to public sector information”, published by the Foresight Centre, the balance between the data protection requirements and the right to obtain public information is askew in Estonia. The implementation of the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has reduced the availability of data even further.
The issue of data freedom needs clearer accountability and advocacy in Estonia, the study “Trends in Access to Public Sector Information” to be presented by the Foresight Centre this Tuesday shows. According to the study, restrictions on public information have increased during the last 20 years.
On Tuesday, 18 October, the Foresight Centre will publish the study “Trends in Access to Public Sector Information”, which gives an overview of the legal environment in Estonia in terms of using public information. The study shows that access to public information is uneven across agencies.
The brief report of the Foresight Centre “Roadmap of Targeted Automatic Subsidies in Estonia” shows that if the government used the data kept in its registers, it would be possible to pay family and energy subsidies automatically and only to those who really need them, and to make the use of finances and the activities of the state more effective. Implementation of the subsidies based on automated data analysis and automatic decisions is mainly hindered by the restrictions in place on the use of data.
Datafication of the Estonian society creates ever increasing challenges both for public and private sectors, says the Foresight Centre brief report “Pitfalls of Using Public Data in Estonia”. The crucial pitfalls highlighted in the report concern the different standards applied to national data bases and the casual setting of access restrictions.
According to the Foresight Centre report “Long-term Impact of the Russo-Ukrainian War on Estonia. Population, Integration, Foreign Trade”, which was published today, Estonia must take into account that many war refugees will remain in Estonia for an indefinite time. The Centre drew up scenarios about 10,000, 30,000 and 60,000 war refugees remaining in Estonia.