NOTE: These are all quite out of date but perhaps some are still useful.
Most information is best found at https://ieadb.com/
The following are places to start finding data for research on international environmental politics. Obviously, there is much more info on the Web – these are not complete or the best but are intended to provide a jumping off point for research. Sources are split in categories that may be helpful in thinking about research structure. Thus, if you are interested in assessing the effects of a treaty, you could read the treaty text, look at the secretariat’s web page, and see who the signatories are. Then, look at government, NGO, and IGO pages to see what the actors involved think. Then, look for environmental indicators of treaty effects in different countries before and after the regime was signed. Then, examine some economic indicators to see whether they can contribute to (or do a better job of) explaining any changes in environmental quality over time.
Additional links to older and more obscure data sources are available here.
- Treaty Texts
- Lists of Governments
- Lists of IGOs
- General Environmental
- Issue-Specific
- Economic Indicators
- Other Statistical Places to Check
- Environment and Development
- Environment and Trade
- Environment and Security
- News
Treaty Texts
Largely Environmental Lists
- ECOLEX – IUCN Treaty List
- Fletcher Multilaterals Database
- Green Yearbook Treaty List
- Fisheries Treaty List
- CIESIN Alphabetical List of Treaty Texts
- FAOLEX listing of FAO related texts
- Transboundary Freshwater Treaties Database at OSU
More General Text Lists
- UN Treaty Texts – password needed
- Australian Treaty List -sorted by year
- Complete list of the Council of Europe’s treaties, including several environmental ones
Hardcopy sources (available in most US law schools)
- Kiss, Alexandre Charles, ed. 1983. Selected multilateral treaties in the field of the environment. Vol. 1. Nairobi, Kenya: United Nations Environment Programme.
- Rummel-Bulska, Iwona, and Seth Osafo, eds. 1991. Selected multilateral treaties in the field of the environment. Vol. 2. Nairobi: United Nations Environment Programme.
- Kiss, Alexandre Charles, and Dinah Shelton. 2000. International environmental law. 2nd ed. Ardseley, N.Y.: Transnational Publishers.
- Rüster, Bernd, and Bruno Simma. 1990. International protection of the environment, second series : treaties and related documents. Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.: Oceana Publications.
- Rüster, Bernd, and Bruno Simma, eds. 1975. International protection of the environment: treaties and related documents. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications.
- Burhenne, W. E. 1974. International environmental law: multilateral treaties. Berlin: E. Schmidt.
- United Nations Environment Programme. 1996. Register of international treaties and other agreements in the field of the environment. Nairobi, Kenya: United Nations Environment Program.
- Bernd Rüster, & Bruno Simma International protection of the environment : treaties and related documents, second series / compiled and edited by Publisher Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. : Oceana Publications, (ISBN: 0379008491)
- Ruster & Simma, International protection of the environment
- Selected multilateral treaties in the field of the environment edited by Alexandre Charles Kiss in 1983 and Vol. 2 edited by Iwona Rummel-Bulska and Seth Osafin 1991.
Lists of Governments
- Yahoo’s list of all foreign countries, including government and other sites
- Yahoo’s Foreign Government Statistical Pages
- Webdirectory
- Yearbook of Intl Co-operation on Environment and Development
Lists of IGOs
- UIA – Union of International Associations – great list of IGOs and NGOs
- Library of Congress list of IGOs
- Yahoo’s list of IGOs
- Green Yearbook list of IGOs
General Environmental
- CIESIN list of data sources
- Green Globe Yearbook Data Tables
- World Resources Data Tables On-line
- Natural Disaster Database
- UN Data on National Implementation of Agenda 21
- World Conservation Monitoring Center
- World Bank’s List of data by issue or by country
- European Union Environment Database
- EPA’s EnviroFacts Database
- IISD Compendium of Sustainable Development Indicator Projects
- US Govt Sustainable Development Indicators
- Ecocart’s International Environmental Databases (commercial)
- National Wetlands Research Center – geospatial, biological, and wetland values database information
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (earth science data tools and services)
- United States Global Change Research Program (statistical portal page)
- National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (global environmental data from satellites portal page)
- International Artic Environment Data Directory (arctic environment data and information)
- CIESIN Dataspace (Center for International Earth Science Information Network portal page)
- United States Geological Survey (environmental impact analysis data links)
- OECD WORLDWIDE STATISTICAL SOURCES (clearinghouse)
- United Nations Statistics Division (statistics, environmental indicators and integrated environmental and economic accounting data)
- World Health Organization (statistical information portal page thealth related datasets)
Issue-Specific
- UN Food & Ag. Org. Database: good place tstart for agriculture, population, food, forestry, fisheries, pesticides! Generates custom tables by year, country, and environmental indicator
- UNFCCC Climate Emissions data – tables Generates nice tables by country, year, gas, source, etc.
- CDIAC CO2 emissions by Country
- Fisheries: US Intl Trade Data
- Whaling: IWC Statistics
- European SOx, NOx, VOCS, CO2, CH4, CO
- Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance
- Forestry charts and Forestry statistics; by country but not by year. Forestry data is alsavailable from the UN-FAO’s 2001: State of the World’s Forests book available in many libraries.
- Car and Motor Vehicle Emissions: Information and Statistics
- Gas and Electric: Understanding Hybrid Cars
Economic Indicators
- World Bank’s World Development Indicators
- Penn Word Tables
- Princeton Office of Population Research Data Archive – fertility rates, etc.
- Minnesota Population/Census Data
Other Statistical Places to Check
Environment and Development
Environment and Trade
Environment and Security
- Peace and Conflict Studies Program
- Project on Environmental Scarcities, State Capacity, and Civil Violence
- Project on Environment, Population, and Security
- Environmental Security Database
- Publications on the Web
Ronald B. Mitchell, Professor 