This December in Paris, 196 countries will meet to try to overcome the gridlock over 2030 carbon emissions targets. Could the impasse over global climate change policy be partly the result of the stark choice we are presented between "clean" renewable sources and the "dirty" oil industry?

New research by Deborah Gordon and her colleagues at Stanford University says this polarized viewpoint lacks nuance. They have created a new index comparing the (wildly differing, it turns out) carbon content of different fossil fuels. Their contribution could reinvigorate the debate and help the oil industry find its place in combating climate change.

Oil is changing

The first round of the Oil-Climate Index (OCI) measured an initial batch of 30 test oils for their carbon content across their whole life cycle — upstream, midstream and downstream. A neat, interactive Web tool will soon be released that compares different crude variables and refining setups and assesses how they contribute to climate change.

The headline of the research is "oil is changing." Seismic changes have shaped the oil industry with the onset of a new generation of unconventional oils. We are misguided by an undifferentiated focus on "oil" as technology rapidly advances.

At one end of the spectrum, extra-heavy oil is the treacle of the oil industry, barely flowing through pipelines without chemical encouragement. At the other extreme, some of the oils found in Bakken shale formations are among the lightest and sweetest in the world — in need of little processing, they are the caviar of the crude world.

But the "sweetness" (sulphur content) and "heaviness" (API gravity) are not the only factors to take into account. In fact, the OCI researchers found little correlation between the carbon emissions intensity of the different crudes tested and their API gravity.

Their analysis asks more detailed questions of the processes used in production and processing of the crudes: Is steam used in extraction? How is any "associated gas" found with the oil handled? Is there water present in the oil?

'Smart' policymakers

Gordon, a former chemical engineer with Chevron in the 1980s, certainly knows her oils. She is as passionate about the intricacies of the oil industry as she is about climate change, and she speaks convincingly about both.

She comes to this debate from the refreshing position of someone with one foot the environmentalist camp and the other in the Big Oil camp. Gordon believes the variability in the climate intensity of different oils will only grow as technology advances and new oils become economically viable, and that the OCI should be food for thought for energy policymakers.

Gordon's team has spotted a gap in energy policymaking, which fails to take into account variability in the carbon content of different oils, when in reality there is an "emissions spread" of more than 80 percent between the lowest and highest emitting oils tested. If an "oil assay" — industry jargon for a chemical analysis of crude — could be understood well enough to be written into EPA regulations, it could provide a viable way for the government to engage the oil industry in a carbon reduction agenda.

Petcoke, for example, emerges as the villain in this story. Petcoke is a "bottom-of-the-barrel" product left over after refining heavy oils such as Canada's tar sands, and is still widely used as a cheap energy source and coal substitute, particularly in China. U.S. petcoke production has tripled since the early 1980s — an overlooked scandal amid calls for a lower-carbon economy. Cracking down on it could be an "easy win."

'Smart' investment

Policymakers are not the only targets of the OCI, but also investors and industry project analysts.

The "stranded assets" movement, which argues that most of the world's fossil fuels owned by oil companies can never be exploited without dangerous levels of climate change, has made a big stir in the energy debate. However the index feeds into this debate by informing more realistic asset valuations in the oil industry by pricing in carbon risk to asset valuation.

Its creators hope it will also inform multibillion-dollar infrastructure decisions, which are optimized for specific oil qualities and will be in place for a generation.

U.S. Gulf Coast refineries, for example, have traditionally been designed to process heavier international oils from Venezuela and the Middle East, and are struggling to keep up with the changes as they are replaced by a new generation of lighter, sweeter domestic oils. If there is enough reliable data, forward-looking companies can make sure refineries and pipelines are equipped and fitted out for what the industry will look like in a future where carbon is more effectively priced into operations.

But this discussion is a corollary of the Open Data discussion I have written about before. In order for this index to be meaningful, it needs more consistent, high-quality and open-source data.

'You cannot manage something if you cannot measure it'

As President Barack Obama made clear in a 2010 speech, "The only way the transition to clean energy will ultimately succeed is if the private sector is fully invested in this future — if capital comes off the sidelines and the ingenuity of our entrepreneurs is unleashed."

Dr. Jeremy Legget, a scientist and former oil industry advisor turned climate campaigner, has boldly predicted that at least one oil company will break ranks and abandon fossil fuels. But the oil industry is one of the most resilient and innovative industries in the world, and the Oil-Climate Index suggests that not only replacement of fossil fuels but also innovation within the oil industry can be transformative — if we repurpose oil companies toward fossil fuels with lower carbon content.

Economics and geopolitics will continue to underpin decisions in the oil and gas industry, but Gordon wants fuel quality to be pored over just as carefully as other factors.