ENVIRONMENTAL DATABASE FOR 2015
Note by the Secretariat[1]
1. The
WTO Environmental Database (EDB) is prepared in response to a recommendation in
the 1996 Report of the Committee on Trade and Environment (WT/CTE/1) for the
Secretariat to compile and update annually all environment-related
notifications to the WTO.[2]
2. The
EDB for 2015 covers information on: (i) environment-related measures notified
under WTO Agreements (Section 1); (ii) environment-related provisions of
notified preferential or Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) (Section 2); and
(iii) environment-related measures mentioned in Trade Policy Reviews (TPRs) (Section 3).[3]
3. Information
in the EDB is drawn from the 3,408 notifications submitted by WTO Members and the
20 TPRs circulated in 2015. The EDB is being
circulated in two parts: this document, which contains a brief description and
overall analysis of the environment-related notifications submitted by WTO
Members and TPRs in 2015; and the database exclusively circulated
electronically under WT/CTE/EDB/15/Add.1, which provides the underlying data,
charts, and tables used for the analysis. The EDB is available at the WTO
website: https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/envir_e/envdb_e.htm.
4. The
electronic data in WT/CTE/EDB/15/Add.1 enables users to search through all EDB environment-related
information according to specific criteria, for instance by Member, Agreement,
type of measure, product, or environmental objective. The electronic file is
divided into two main worksheets: "Notifications", listing all the
environment-related notifications; and "TPRs", providing the
environment-related information mentioned in TPRs. In addition, a third
worksheet entitled "Summary" is included to allow users to retrieve
pre-defined summary tables and graphs for the period 1997 – 2015. A
detailed user's guide is included in Annex V to this document.
[1] This
document has been prepared under the Secretariat's own responsibility and is
without prejudice to the positions of Members or to their rights and
obligations under the WTO.
[2] Previous
Environmental Databases have been circulated in the following documents: EDB
1996 in WT/CTE/W/46, EDB 1997 in WT/CTE/W/77, EDB 1998 in WT/CTE/W/118,
EDB 1999 in WT/CTE/W/143, EDB 2000 in WT/CTE/W/195, EDB 2001 in
WT/CTE/EDB/1, EDB 2002 in WT/CTE/EDB/2, EDB 2003 in WT/CTE/EDB/3, EDB 2004 in
WT/CTE/EDB/4, EDB 2005 in WT/CTE/EDB/5, EDB 2006 in WT/CTE/EDB/6, EDB 2007
in WT/CTE/EDB/7, EDB 2008 in WT/CTE/EDB/8, EDB 2009 in WT/CTE/EDB/9 and Add.1,
EDB 2010 in WT/CTE/EDB/10 and Add.1, EDB 2011 in WT/CTE/EDB/11 and
Add.1, EDB 2012 in WT/CTE/EDB/12 and Add.1, EDB 2013 in WT/CTE/EDB/13
and Add.1, and EDB 2014 in WT/CTE/EDB/14 and Add.1.
[3] The list
of search words is contained in Annex I to this document. See also the
following documents containing information on search words: WT/CTE/W/46, WT/CTE/W/78
and WT/CTE/W/102.