Definitions

What are International Environmental Agreements ?

The IEADB defines an international environmental agreement (IEA) as an intergovernmental document intended to be legally binding with a primary stated purpose of preventing or managing human impacts on natural resources.

Defining "international"

Although "international" can have broader meanings, the IEADB narrowly defines international agreements as intergovernmental agreements. The IEADB includes only agreements to which two or more states have (or are allowed to) become parties. It excludes instruments between single governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), between single governments and international organizations, and between or among corporations, NGOs, or international organizations. For the purpose of this definition, the European Union is considered analogous to a state rather than an intergovernmental organization.

Defining "environmental"

The IEADB defines agreements as environmental if they seek, as one of their primary purposes, to manage or prevent human impacts on natural resources; plant and animal species (including in agriculture); the atmosphere; oceans; rivers; lakes; terrestrial habitats; and other elements of the natural world that provide ecosystem services (Daily 1997).

To determine the primary purposes of an agreement, we examine its title, preamble, and the initial articles. This approach is generally sufficient. Nonetheless, an agreement can be classified as environmental even if it does not explicitly state environmental protection as an objective, provided it contains multiple commitments aimed at environmental protection. In these cases, we consider that the primary environmental purpose is implicit. Conversely, an agreement is not considered environmental if it only mentions vague objectives such as "sustainable development" in its preamble without incorporating specific environmental provisions in the main body of the treaty.

An agreement can have more than one primary purpose, including seemingly conflicting objectives. However, a secondary objective is not considered as a primary purpose. Providing environmental exceptions to the main obligations of an agreement is not sufficient to consider that an agreement primarily aims at protecting the environment.

The definition intentionally errs in being too broad (assuming those with narrower definitions can more readily discard included agreements than identify excluded ones) while trying to avoid including agreements most scholars and practitioners would not classify as environmental.

Importantly, this definition does not consider the actual effect of a treaty. It might be the case that some IEAs included in the dataset have harmful consequences on environmental protection and other treaties not included in the IEADB positively contribute to environmental protection. A definition of IEAs based on their environmental effects would diverge significantly from common usage. It would also have the analytic drawback of requiring that agreement effects be identified before they can be categorized as environmental. If used literally, it would preclude analysis of why some environmental agreements fail (because those that have no environmental effects would be defined as not environmental).

Agreements addressing human health; conflict, cultural preservation, transportation, weather, labor, border delimitation, and similar issues are not included unless those agreements addressed environmental issues as a primary concern.

Defining "agreements"

The IEADB considers any treaty, regardless of its designation, as an agreement. It includes agreements designated as conventions, accords, charters, understandings, acts, arrangements, protocols, and their non-English equivalents.

The 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties' defines a treaty as "an international agreement concluded between States in written form and governed by international law" in which states express a "consent to be bound" [Articles 2(1)(a) and 11 through 17].

When the legally-binding nature of text is unclear, the IEADB considers reliable sources of opinion, such as a secretariat, UNEP, or published legal analysis.

The IEADB provides a historical record of signed agreements. It is not limited to agreements in force, since it includes agreements that never entered into force and others that have been terminated.

Amendments to agreements are considered as agreements for the purpose of the IEADB.

The IEADB does not include action plans, agreed measures, codes of conduct, declarations, resolutions, and similar soft law instruments. It also excludes European Union directives because they are distinct in several important ways from other international agreements (Burns 2002; Burhenne and Jahnke 1993; Brown Weiss 1997).

inclusion

The variable "inclusion" in the dataset provides a three-letter code for each instrument listed. The first letter is either B (bilateral), M (multilateral), or O (others, such as transnational institutions). The second letter is either E (environmental), N (non-environmental), or U (uncertain). The third letter is either A (agreement) or N (non-agreement).

Key variables

Mitch-ID

Mitch IDs are unique identification numbers assigned to thousands of documents, including some that are excluded from the dataset because they do not fit the definition (to leave a trace for the reason of their exclusion). There is no particular order to the Mitch-ID. Related datasets use to the Mitch-IDs as a key to make these datasets interoperational with the IEADB.

Bilateral (BEA) or multilateral (MEA) agreements

An agreement is considered as multilateral if it has three parties or more.

Lineage

A lineage is any set of legally-related agreements that are linked by the fact that they modify, replace, extend or otherwise constitute agreements that have a legal relationship to each other. The lineage concept is intended to help scholars and practitioners see the legal development of an issue area in ways that are not usually readily apparent.

For example, the marine pollution (MARPOL) lineage includes the original 1954 OILPOL agreement; the 1962, 1969, and 1971 amendments to that agreement; the 1973 MARPOL agreement that replaced the 1954 agreement; the 1978 Protocol to the MARPOL agreement; and numerous amendments of the 1973/78 MARPOL agreement as well as several separate related conventions.

The Sequence Number for a lineage is a numbering system devised to show the legal sequence of agreements, using the following conventions:

Hundreds are used to designate agreements (e.g., 100.00 is the first agreement in a lineage, 200.00 is the second agreement in a lineage, 300.00 is the third agreement in a lineage).
Units are used to designate protocols (e.g., 601.00 is the first protocol to the sixth agreement in a lineage, 307.00 is the seventh protocol to the third agreement in a lineage).
Decimals are used to designate amendments (e.g., 103.01 is the first amendment to the third protocol of the first agreement in a lineage, 205.04 is the fourth amendment to the fifth protocol of the second agreement in a lineage).

Subjects

Subjects	Definitions
Energy	This category captures agreements that address all types of energy production, including nuclear energy, clean energy, and solar heating. Treaties concerning nuclear energy safety and accidents are included. However, agreements related to nuclear weapons (see Weapons and environment) and those related to radioactive pollution or waste (see Pollution) are excluded. This category also includes agreements concerning hydroelectricity and hydroelectric dams. Agreements on “dams” are excluded if their use is not strictly reserved for energy production (see Freshwater).
Weapons and environment	This category includes agreements that establish nuclear-weapon-free zones or test bans, as well as those dealing with chemical and bacteriological weapons.
Pollution	This category encompasses agreements addressing all forms of pollution—air, land, ocean, or freshwater—at regional or global scales. It includes agreements related to climate change, ozone layer depletion, ballast water, corrosive substances, flammable substances, smelter fumes, mercury and lead emissions, ship dumping, and all forms of waste disposal. Agreements on radioactive waste and pollution are included, as are agreements addressing contamination from industrial and other human-caused accidents, such as oil spills (except nuclear accidents, see Energy).
Freshwater	This category includes agreements related to the regulation or protection of lakes and rivers. It excludes agreements dealing with freshwater pollution (see Pollution) or freshwater use for hydroelectricity (see Energy). It also excludes agreements related to fisheries in lakes or rivers (see Fisheries).
Fisheries	This category includes all agreements concerning fish and fisheries management, including the conservation of fish species. It covers agreements focused on the harvesting of fish, shellfish, and crustaceans (e.g., crabs, lobsters, prawns), but excludes agreements on marine mammals and reptiles (see Conservation of species and biodiversity). The term “marine living resources” is not sufficient to be categorized as fish (see Conservation of species and biodiversity instead).
Agriculture	This category includes agreements related to agriculture, farming, and sanitary or veterinary issues, including animal health. It covers agreements dealing with invasive insects and plants, as well as plant protection. Agreements addressing plant genetic resources and modifications are also included.
Conservation of species and biodiversity	This category includes agreements concerning the conservation and protection of animal species (excluding fish, see Fisheries), whether endangered or not. It also includes the protection of wildlife and marine living resources. Agreements regulating hunting or combating poaching fall into this category, as do those focused on forest conservation (including forest fire issues), forestry, and timber. It further includes agreements on biodiversity protection. Agreements on specific areas are excluded (see Habitat)
Habitat and ocean	This category includes agreements related to specific ecosystems, including marine environments. For ocean protection, it encompasses agreements on ocean exploration, coastal areas, coral reefs, the deep seabed, and ocean science. It also includes agreements concerning land issues, drought, desertification, wetlands, protected areas, natural reserves, and sanctuaries. Regional protection agreements (e.g., the Amazon, Antarctica) are also captured here. Agreements on protected areas and biodiversity are included in this category (not in Conservation of species and biodiversity). Agreements on ocean fisheries are excluded (see Fisheries).
General environmental cooperation	This category includes agreements aimed at the general conservation, management, preservation, and protection of natural resources and the environment. It includes agreements on environmental impact assessments and prior notification procedures when these apply broadly. It also covers general “nature conservation” agreements and bilateral agreements on “environmental cooperation.” Agreements on natural disaster management are included here, except those specifically concerning forest fires (see Conservation of species and biodiversity). This category also includes agreements covering multiple subjects without a clearly dominant theme.
Trade and environmnent	This category includes trade agreements with detailed environmental provisions. These address issues such as certification, labeling, environmental goods and services, regulatory cooperation, intellectual property, subsidies, public procurement, and investment.
Others	This category captures agreements that do not fit under other headings. It notably includes agreements on environmental health and other highly specific issues.