International Environmental Agreements Database Project

Data source: International Environmental Agreements Database Project

International Environmental Agreements (IEA) include efforts to regulate human interactions with the environment that involve legally binding commitments ("agreements") among governments ("international") that have environmental protection as a primary objective ("environmental").The IEAs include:
- instruments designated as convention, treaty, agreement, accord, or their non-English equivalents, and protocols and amendments to such instruments;
- instruments, regardless of designation, establishing intergovernmental commissions;
- instruments, regardless of designation, identified as binding by reliable sources (e.g., by a secretariat, UNEP, or published legal analysis); or
- instruments, regardless of designation, whose texts fit accepted terminologies of legally-binding agreements.

Intergovernmental "soft laws," such as action plans, agreed measures, codes of conduct, declarations, resolutions, and similar policies that are not binding are excluded. European Union (EU) directives are also excluded due to their unique status.

Dataset type
Time-Series
Dataset level
Country

Citation

When using this dataset, please cite as:

• Mitchell, R. B. (2020). International environmental agreements database project (version 2020.1). http://iea.uoregon.edu/
• Mitchell, R. B., Andonova, L. B., Axelrod, M., Balsiger, J., Bernauer, T., Green, J. F., Hollway, J., Kim, R. E., & Morin, J.-F. (2020). What we know (and could know) about international environmental agreements. Global Environmental Politics, 20(1), 103–121.

Variables in this dataset

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The number of international environmental agreements, amendments, and protocols that entered into force for the first time (before any withdrawals), in the recorded year.

The number of international environmental agreements, amendments, and protocols that entered into force after the first withdrawal, in the recorded year.

The number of international environmental agreements, amendments, and protocols that entered into force after the second withdrawal, in the recorded year.

The number of international environmental agreements, amendments, and protocols in force, including international environmental agreements that have been terminated.

The number of international environmental agreements, amendments, and protocols in force, not counting terminated international environmental agreements.

The number of international environmental agreements, amendments, and protocols ratified in the recorded year. The users are encouraged to use "entry into force" instead of signatures and ratificat ...

The number of international environmental agreements, amendments, and protocols signed in the recorded year. The data on signatures are incomplete. Signatures are fewer than ratifications or entry ...

The number of international environmental agreements, amendments, and protocols terminated in the recorded year.

The number of first-time withdrawals from international environmental agreements, amendments, and protocols in the recorded year.

The number of second-time withdrawals from international environmental agreements, amendments, and protocols in the recorded year.