ENVIRONMENTAL DATABASE FOR 2023
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],[3]
2._
In October 2018,
a web-based EDB application was developed. The web-based EDB is available
through the WTO website: https://www.wto.org/edb or through the URL address: https://edb.wto.org/.[4]
3._
In 2023, there were
840 environment-related notifications with 2,229 distinct environment‑related
measures. In addition, there were 2,211 environment-related entries drawn from
the 17 Trade Policy Reviews (TPRs) presented to the Trade Policy Review Body in
2023. The full data
set for 2023 can be accessed at: https://edb.wto.org/search?field_year%5B%5D=2023&search_api_fulltext=&field_ics_hs_code=&type=notification.
4._
This note is a
summary report of the underlying data contained in the EDB. It covers
information on: (i) environment-related measures notified under WTO Agreements and notification obligations (Section
1); (ii) environment-related measures mentioned in TPRs (Section 2); and (iii) EDB data for
topic-specific analysis with a focus on pollution (Section 3).
_______________
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1
WTO NOTIFICATIONS. 3
2 INFORMATION CONTAINED IN TRADE POLICY
REVIEWS. 9
3 EDB DATA FOR TOPIC-SPECIFIC ANALYSIS. 14
3.1
Harmonized EDB objectives associated with pollution-related measures. 15
3.2
WTO Members with pollution-related measures. 16
3.3
WTO Agreements and types of pollution-related measures in the EDB. 16
3.4
Pollution-related measures by sector 17
3.5
Pollution coverage in the TPR entries of the EDB. 18
4 ANNEXES. 20
Annex
I. EDB keywords. 20
Annex
II. Number of environment-related notifications (1997‑2023) 21
Annex
III. EDB Harmonized Categories. 23
TABLE OF CHARTS
Chart 1.1. Environment-related notifications (1997‑2023) 3
Chart 1.2. Environment-related notifications by
Members (2023) 4
Chart 1.3. Environment-related notifications and
measures (2009-2023) 5
Chart 1.4. Environment-related notifications and
measures by Agreement (2023) 6
Chart 1.5. Types of environment-related
objectives identified in the EDB (2023) 7
Chart 1.6. Type of measures identified in the
EDB (2023) 8
Chart 1.7. Type of sectors identified in the EDB
(2023) 9
Chart 2.1. Types of environment-related measures
mentioned in TPRs (2023) 14
Chart 3.1. Pollution-related measures in the EDB
(2014‑2023) 15
Chart 3.2. Top 5 EDB objectives in the
pollution-related measures (2014‑2023) 16
Chart 3.3. Top 10 WTO Members with pollution-related
measures (2014‑2023) 16
Chart 3.4. Pollution-related measures by WTO
Agreement (2014‑2023) 17
Chart 3.5. Pollution-related measures by sector
(2014-2023) 18
Chart 3.6. TPR entries related to pollution in the
EDB (2014‑2023) 18
Chart 3.7. Top 10 WTO Members with TPR entries
related to pollution (2014‑2023) 19
TABLE OF TABLES
Table 3.1. Top 10 types of pollution-related measures in the
EDB (2014-2023) 17
Table 4.1. Harmonized Categories of environment‑related objectives
(25) 23
Table 4.2. Harmonized Categories of type of measures (31) 23
Table 4.3. Harmonized Categories of sectors subject to the measure
(11) 24
[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 Database
Reports 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 _WT/CTE/EDB/9/Add.1, EDB 2010 in _WT/CTE/EDB/10 and _WT/CTE/EDB/10/Add.1, EDB 2011 in _WT/CTE/EDB/11 and _WT/CTE/EDB/11/Add.1, EDB 2012 in _WT/CTE/EDB/12 and _WT/CTE/EDB/12/Add.1, EDB 2013 in _WT/CTE/EDB/13 and _WT/CTE/EDB/13/Add.1, EDB 2014 in _WT/CTE/EDB/14 and _WT/CTE/EDB/14/Add.1, EDB 2015 in _WT/CTE/EDB/15 and _WT/CTE/EDB/15/Add.1, EDB 2016 in _WT/CTE/EDB/16 and _WT/CTE/EDB/16/Add.1 EDB 2017 in _WT/CTE/EDB/17, EDB 2018 in _WT/CTE/EDB/18, EDB 2019 in _WT/CTE/EDB/19, EDB 2020 in _WT/CTE/EDB/20 and _WT/CTE/EDB/20/Corr.1, EDB 2021 in _WT/CTE/EDB/21, and EDB 2022 in _WT/CTE/EDB/22.
[3] The list of key 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. The search strings and key words
are for EDB data collection/entry purposes only. They do not constitute any
legal interpretation and are without prejudice to the positions of WTO Members
or to their rights and obligations under the WTO.
[4] Users are invited to access EDB
directly from the web-based application which contains data from 2009 onwards.
More data will be uploaded to the database as and when ready.