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Databases and Online Resources
Climate Action Tracker, https://climateactiontracker.org/
The Climate Action Tracker is developed by three independent research centers. It quantifies climate change commitments, and assesses whether countries are on track in meeting those. It also aggregates country action at the global level, determining likely temperature increase by the end of the century.
Climate Watch https://www.climatewatchdata.org/
This website offers data and visualizations of states’ actions related to climate change, including greenhouse gases emissions as well as commitments to reduce them. In addition, it provides several analytical tools that map out trends, both present and future, related to climate change.
CDP Disclosure Insight Action, https://data.cdp.net/
This website, developed by the non-governmental organization CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project) offers data about environmental commitments and actions made by local actors, such as cities, regions, and companies, on a wide variety of environmental issues ranging from water, renewable energy or climate hazards.
Environmental Data Explorer, http://geodata.grid.unep.ch
The Environmental Data Explorer is used by the United Nations Environment Programme and its partners in the preparation of their reports on environmental issues. This database features over 500 variables at the national, regional and global levels, and includes statistics and geospatial databases, on topics such as freshwater, forests, harmful emissions, climate change, and natural disasters.
Environmental Justice Atlas https://ejatlas.org/
This website, created by academic researchers at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, maps and documents social conflicts around environmental issues. These conflicts include social mobilizations against an economic activity or a policy proposal. Conflicts are related to nuclear energy, mining, waste management, land, water management, and natural reserves, among others environmental issues.
Environmental Performance Index, https://epi.envirocenter.yale.edu/
This website allows us to comparatively evaluate how different countries perform on environmental issues. It presents an environmental performance index for 180 countries, on the basis of 24 performances indicators, such as air pollution and lead exposure, to provide an overview of states’ progress in achieving established environmental policy goals. It also offers visualization tools and summary reports. The index has been developed by Yale University and Columbia University in collaboration with the World Economic Forum.
Environmental Studies Section of the International Studies Association, http://environmental-studies.org
This website features the activities of the International Studies Association’s Environmental Studies Section, including publications, newsletters and conferences related to international environmental politics.
Environmental Sustainability Index, http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/es/esi/
The Environmental Sustainability Index, developed under the umbrella of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) since 2000 presents a tool to measure the general evolution of the Earth’s environmental sustainability over time. The website offers reports and other environmental data, as well as several complementary sources. It also offers a large gallery of maps created by using the website’s data on various environmental issues.
Environmental Treaties and Resource Indicators, http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/collection/entri
This website is a searchable database developed under the umbrella of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of more than 600 environmental treaties offering information on their status and their member countries, among others. It also provides the full texts of the agreements as well as country profiles, and allows for word searches in both treaty texts and Conference of Party decisions.
European Environmental Agency https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps
The European Environmental Agency is an agency of the European Union whose task is to provide information on the environment. Its website offers various data, maps and graphs comparing nature resources consumption and pollutant emissions in European countries.
FAOSTAT, http://faostat3.fao.org
FAOSTAT is a website on food and agriculture statistics maintained by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. An important part of this website also relates to environmental data, such as freshwater use, demographic data, forest land and greenhouse gases emissions. The website also features reports on numerous topics, including food security.
Global Climate Action, http://climateaction.unfccc.int
Launched by the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, France and Peru in 2014, the Global Climate Action website offers data on transnational environmental initiatives aimed at addressing climate change.
International Institute for Sustainable Development Reporting Services, www.iisd.ca
This website, developed by a non-governmental organization, offers daily summary reports as well as analyses of major international negotiations on the environment and development through its online, free publication, the Earth Negotiations Bulletin. It also contains archives going back to 1992.
Informea, https://www.informea.org/
This website, maintained by the United Nations, gathers information on multilateral environmental agreements by region, country and theme (including biodiversity, chemicals and waste, climate change and atmosphere, and marine and freshwater). It also provides a list of cases and complaints made under these agreements and a list of relevant publications.
International Environmental Agreements Database, http://iea.uoregon.edu
This database created by Ronald Mitchell at the University of Oregon, lists thousands of multilateral regional, and bilateral agreements on the environment. Most of them are available in full-text.
International Regimes Database, http://www.fernuni-hagen.de/polis/lg2/projekte/InternationalRegimesDatabase.shtml
This tool was developed by a team of German and American researchers. They coded various characteristics of 23 international environmental regimes, for instance the political context in which they were negotiated, their attributes, their consequences and their dynamics. Regimes include those that address Antarctica, desertification, and wetlands, among others.
Measuring-progress.eu, https://measuring-progress.eu/
This interactive tool, developed under a European Union funded research project, aggregates indicators from other sources to measure progress towards the green economy. Its database features indicators divided among five main topics: environmental sustainability, social justice, quality of life, economic sustainability and resilience, and effective governance, as well as annotations on the interpretation of the indicators.
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Data on the Environment, http://data.oecd.org/ENVIRONMENT.HTM
This database, maintained by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, includes a full section on environmental issues. It features both data on various environmental issues, such as air and climate, forests, waste and water, as well as publications providing analyses of this data.
Our World in Data, https://ourworldindata.org
This website, developed by the University of Oxford, aims to offer visual representations of the world based on data in various areas, including the environment. More specifically, it provides visualizations and accompanying analyses for several environmental issues, such as CO2 emissions, natural disasters, and air pollution.
Trade and Environment Database Analytics, www.TRENDanalytics.info
The TREND dataset was developed by Jean-Frédéric Morin It offers an exhaustive and detailed codification of environmental provisions in over 680 trade agreements adopted since 1947. The provisions coded include both issue-specific provisions (on forests, fisheries, etc.) as well as institutional provisions. The website, created by the German Development Institute, features visualization tools and links to publications based on the data collected.
Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database, www.transboundarywaters.orst.edu
This database, developed by the Oregon State University, lists over 400 international agreements on freshwater, starting from the 19th century to present day, as well as over 6,000 events (both cooperative and conflictual) on this theme. It also features a database of transboundary watersheds as well as several publications.
World Bank Open Data, http://data.worldbank.org/
World Bank Open Data is an online resource developed by the World Bank group. It includes data on a large number of topics, including many related to international environmental policy, such as climate change (rising sea levels, energy emissions), rural development (agricultural production, fertilizer use), and natural resources (protection of marine resources, forests, biodiversity).
World Resources Institute, www.wri.org/resources
The World Resources Institute is an international research organization that offers data and maps on six main themes related to the environment and development: climate, energy, food, forests, water, and cities. The data covers over 50 countries. The website also features many publications, graphics and other useful information.