Troubleshooting carbon emissions data exports - AWS Data Exports
Why can't I create an export of the Carbon emissions table even though I have IAM permissions to use Data Exports and the CUR 2.0 table?Why can't I see carbon emissions data for some member accounts in my organization?Why is one of the files in my S3 bucket empty?Why does my S3 export show zero carbon emissions for some Regions and services when there is usage data?Is historical data backfill available in Data Exports for carbon emissions?How can I backfill data after changing my report settings or when a new methodology is released?Why can't I see historical data in my S3 bucket?Why don't I see the newly released columns in my export?Why is my data not provided using older methodology versions?

Troubleshooting carbon emissions data exports

Why can't I create an export of the Carbon emissions table even though I have IAM permissions to use Data Exports and the CUR 2.0 table?

To access carbon footprint data, you need the IAM permission sustainability:GetCarbonFootprintSummary.

Why can't I see carbon emissions data for some member accounts in my organization?

If you're using a management (payer) account, you should automatically see carbon emissions data for your management account and all member (usage) accounts in the Carbon emissions table. No extra configuration is required.

However, there is a data lag of up to 21 days for carbon emissions data. For new member accounts, data won't appear in the management account’s carbon emissions data export until the export period that includes when the member account joined the organization. For example, if you linked a new member account in January, its data first appears in the February export.

Similarly, when a member account leaves the organization, its data continues to appear until the export period when it was removed.

Why is one of the files in my S3 bucket empty?

If your account doesn't have carbon emissions data for a given month, you'll receive a file in your S3 bucket for the given carbon model version and usage period, but the file will be empty.

Why does my S3 export show zero carbon emissions for some Regions and services when there is usage data?

If your total carbon emissions show as zero, it means they are lower than 0.0000005 MTCO2e, which is our display threshold.

Is historical data backfill available in Data Exports for carbon emissions?

Yes, upon creating an export you will receive data going back up to January 2022 with the first delivery and one month of data each month thereafter. If your account was created after January 2022, you’ll receive carbon emissions estimates from your account creation date onward.

If you have an existing data export, you can request a backfill. See how in the question below.

How can I backfill data after changing my report settings or when a new methodology is released?

Open a support case to request a backfill of your carbon data. In your support case, make sure to provide the report name and the start date for your backfill. For more information on opening a case, see Getting help with your exports and reports.

Note that you can't get a backfill of carbon data for the following scenarios:

  • You can't get a backfill for carbon data from before the date that you created the account.

  • If you use AWS Organizations and the structure of your organization changed, such as which account is designated the management account, then you can't get a backfill of data with the previous organization structure.

  • If you use AWS Organizations and you change organizations, then you can't get a backfill of data from prior to joining your current organization

Why can't I see historical data in my S3 bucket?

Your S3 bucket might be missing historical data for any of the following reasons:

  • No historical data exists: If you have an account without historical carbon emissions estimates due to being a new account or recently changing membership in AWS Organizations, no historical data can be populated in your S3 bucket. If your account has been created after January 2022, you'll receive the carbon emissions estimates for the entire duration of your account being active.

  • Historical backfill is still in progress: Historical data backfill by Data Exports can take up to 24 hours to complete. You can use the SDK/CLI to check if any backfill executions failed with the ListExecutions API for this export, or if they are still in progress. Wait a little longer or use ListExecutions to ensure the backfill is not in progress.

  • Historical backfill failed: Historical data backfill may have failed to complete due to an internal error. You can come to this conclusion if it's been more than 24 hours and the backfill is not complete, or you can use the ListExecutions API in the SDK/CLI and look for any failed executions for this export. If you believe the backfill has failed, try creating a new export. If it fails a second time, we recommend reaching out to AWS Support.

Why don't I see the newly released columns in my export?

Existing exports continue with their original configuration and monthly updates until updated. To add new columns to an existing export, you must update your export configuration for future monthly exports (previously exported data remains unchanged). To backfill data with the new columns, you need to create a new export. This provides up to 38 months of historical data plus monthly updates.

Why is my data not provided using older methodology versions?

We publish data using the latest methodology version to ensure your estimated emissions are as accurate as possible. If you had an existing data export with data from previous versions, the data will continue to be available for you to reference, unless you delete it. There is no other way to retrieve old versions.

If you configured your Data Export’s File versioning to Overwrite, we will only update your files if a data improvement is delivered within the same methodology version. If you want to keep all historical versions of your data, select Create new under File versioning. This will ensure your data is never overwritten.