Introduction

The Standard International Energy Products Classification (SIEC) is a classification of energy products that is suitable for the production of energy statistics under different country circumstances and that are relevant for the presentation and analysis of energy data in various policies and analytical contexts. SIEC covers all energy products necessary to provide a comprehensive picture of the production, transformation and consumption of energy throughout an economy. Thus, the scope of SIEC consists of the following:

• a. Fuels that are produced/generated by an economic unit (including households) and are used or might be used as sources of energy;
• b. Electricity that is generated by an economic unit (including households), and Heat generated and sold to third parties by an economic unit.

SIEC was endorsed as an international statistical classification in 2011 as part of the International Recommendations for Energy Statistics (IRES). For more information on SIEC and the definitions of the energy products, please see Chapter III of IRES available at: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/energystats/methodology/documents/IRES-web.pdf.

The main purpose of SIEC is to serve as a basis for developing or revising national classification schemes for energy products so as to make them compatible with international standards and, consequently, to ensure significantly improved cross-country comparability of energy data. SIEC is intended to be a multipurpose classification, meaning that individual SIEC products and aggregates are defined to be suitable for the production of energy statistics under different country circumstances and are relevant for the presentation and analysis of energy data in various policies and analytical contexts. In this connection, it is recognized that SIEC should be periodically reviewed and revised as necessary to reflect changes in the patterns of energy production and consumption.

SIEC is designed to support of the collection of data from data reporters and will: (i) facilitate and standardize the compilation and processing of energy data by providing a uniform and hierarchical coding system; (ii) ensure international comparability of disseminated national data; and (iii) facilitate the linking of data on stocks and flows of energy products with data on international trade in energy products and other economic statistics.

SIEC Revision

The revision of SIEC was mandated by the United Nations Statistical Commission during its 53rd session in March 2022 (Decision 53/125f of E/CN.3/2022/41).

The United Nations Committee of Experts on International Statistical Classifications (UNCEISC) established the Task Team on the Standard International Energy Products Classification (TT-SIEC) with the mandate to carry out the revision and prepare a new version of SIEC and to improve harmonization between SIEC and CPC.

In May 2023, a global consultation on the initial list of issues was conducted. Eighteen initial issues for discussion were identified. From 2023 through 2025, TT-SIEC discussed these issues and has developed this draft structure for SIEC Version 2.0.

SIEC Version 2.0 reflects recent user requests by addressing emerging energy products and including more detailed breakdowns for several existing products, among other changes.

The classification maintains a 4-level structure, which now includes 12 Sections from the original 10, and Sections are now identified by a letter rather than a number.

2025 Global Consultation

A global consultation on the draft structure of SIEC Version 2.0 is being held in July-August 2025.

Following this global consultation, the draft SIEC Ver. 2.0 will be finalized and submitted to the UN Statistical Commission for endorsement in 2026.

Documents

Below are the relevant documents from the 2025 global consultation:

• 1.Draft structure of SIEC Version 2.0
• 2.Summary of revisions explaining the changes in SIEC Version 2.0 compared with SIEC Version 1.0, and the underlying rationale for these changes
• 3.Global consultation questionnaire

Previous version of SIEC (Version 1.0)

Please see Chapter III of IRES available at: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/energystats/methodology/documents/IRES-web.pdf.