18.2 Value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity.
Disaggregation of the headline indicator:
All the values are to be reported in national currency in current values.
Explanation: The disaggregated values are taken from the formerly proposed complementary indicators; the value of subsidies to capture fisheries is new, proposed by the TEG. None of the disaggregation options are mandatory but can be voluntarily chosen by countries. In case of the disaggregation for the fishery sector and fossil fuels, datasets with data for some countries exist and can be used within the template. Further information below.
Justification for revising the proposed headline indicator: The headline indicator as it is worded in Table 2 of CBD/COP/DEC/15/5 would only allow countries to report on (positive) reform, but if this were to be reversed in another year, this information would not be recorded. For example, country X might eliminate/reform 2 million worth of harmful incentives in year 1, but then introduce (other) harmful incentives worth 10 million in year 2 or 3. The original wording of the headline indicator only requires that countries report on the reform of harmful incentives in year 1, but does not require the country to report on the introduction of harmful incentives in year 2 or 3. Furthermore, a country with a high value of harmful subsidies/incentives that reforms even a small fraction of them will look to be performing better than a country that has few or no harmful subsidies/incentives and has therefore reformed few or none.
TEG would like to note that there is no standardized, globally agreed methodology for assessing the value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity that are eliminated, phased out or reformed, nor is there a single global dataset providing this information. However, there are datasets and methodologies for assessing the value of (potentially) harmful subsidies and other incentives across particular sectors. Furthermore, changes in these values from one year to the next at national level may represent policy action (reform) but can also reflect other factors e.g., changes in commodity prices. In aggregate, time series data on indicators relevant to evaluating “the value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity” allows for the monitoring of progress towards target 18.2. (i.e., by examining trends over time).
In addition to the headline indicator, the TEG proposes a “binary indicator” to capture the very first part of target 18 regarding the identification of incentives harmful to biodiversity (by 2025). Please refer to the corresponding metadata sheet for the binary indicator.
2024-03-28 12:00:00 UTC
N/A
Headline indicator for Target 18: Identify by 2025, and eliminate, phase out or reform incentives, including subsidies, harmful for biodiversity, in a proportionate, just, fair, effective and equitable way, while substantially and progressively reducing them by at least $500 billion per year by 2030, starting with the most harmful incentives, and scale up positive incentives for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
This indicator quantifies all the incentives including subsidies harmful to biodiversity provided by the Government. Regular reporting on the indicator will reveal the trend of [the value of] incentives including subsidies harmful to biodiversity over time. A decreasing trend indicates that a government is eliminating, phasing out or reforming incentives harmful to biodiversity. On the other hand, an increasing trend suggests the value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity is rising over time.
There is no universally agreed definition of subsidies, as it depends on the context in which the term is discussed. The CBD refers to harmful or perverse incentives to biodiversity as “economic, legal and institutional incentives that emanate from policies or practices that induce unsustainable behavior that destroys biodiversity, often as unanticipated side-effects of policies designed to attain other objectives”. Subsidies are considered a subset of incentives.
In context of this indicator, the focus is on the monetary value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity, including policy measures (e.g. market price support, where relevant).
The WTO defines a subsidy as “a financial contribution by a government, or agent of a government, that confers a benefit on its
recipients” for the purposes of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.
The OECD describes environmental harmful subsidies/support as “all kinds of financial support and regulations that are put into place to enhance the competitiveness of certain products, processes or regions, and that, together with the prevailing taxation regime, (unintentionally) discriminate against sound environmental practices”.
Similarly, in the SEEA, the Central Framework explicitly says, "A definition of PEDS [potentially environmentally damaging subsidies] is not included in the SEEA". Eurostat provides the following guidance and information in this context: Guidance material for the Eurostat PEDS compilation, Potentially environmentally damaging transfers and Background document (discussed in the working group on monetary environmental statistics and accounts in 2022). The Eurostat Guidelines on Environmental subsidies and similar transfers state:
“There is no established definition of potentially environmentally damaging subsidies but there are ideas of how such a definition could be elaborated. One idea is to look at reductions and exemptions related to environmental taxes (using the list of environmental tax bases), which includes tax abatements. Another possible idea is to create a list of potentially harmful activities. This approach is an example of an approach ‘based on beneficiary’ since each subsidy would have to be allocated to the receiving activities and those transfers that are allocated to potentially harmful activities are considered as PEDS. All environmental subsidies and similar transfers should be excluded from the scope.”
It is important for each country to identify subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity within their national context when working on the identification of subsidies (see binary indicator 18.2.).
Value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity
Total value of incentives, including subsidies, that have been identified to be harmful to biodiversity. This value can be either provided as total sum by the countries, or they can choose to use the disaggregation options (agriculture, fisheries, fossil fuels, others), as relevant. For the latter, the country would be requested to specify which sectors the data relate to.
If the data are reported directly by Parties, they should be reported annually and in the national currency in current values.
Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity
The OECD database on Producer Support Estimate (PSE) collects data on government support to agriculture. 54 countries provide data to this database (as of March 2024), covering about 75% of global agricultural value-added. In relation to the reporting on the “Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity”,the OECD has found that agricultural support provided throughmarket price support, payments based on output, and the unconstrained use of variable inputs, are the potentially most harmful to environment, and thereby could affect biodiversity in particular countries (Henderson and Lankoski, 2019; DeBoe, 2020a,b).
Sources: Henderson and Lankoski (2019) http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/add0f27c-en; DeBoe (2020a) https://doi.org/10.1787/6bc916e7-en. DeBoe (2020b), https://doi.org/10.1787/3d459f91-en
Value of fossil fuel subsidies (production and consumption)21
Relevant measures include: 1) direct transfer of government funds; 2) induced transfers (price support); and 3) tax expenditure, other revenue foregone, and underpricing of goods and services.
Concepts:
Direct transfers are generally reported in government budgets, and well documented in sectoral and Finance Ministries, broken down by programme if not by fuel. Those that meet the System of National Accounts (SNA) definition of “subsidies” – i.e., subsidies on products, and other subsidies on production – can also be found in a country’s System of National Accounts. Budget documents are publicly available for most countries. The degree to which information on individual programmes is itemized in those reports is highly variable, however. Support to corporations involved in energy production or transformation may sometimes be found in their annual reports, for example. In some cases, researchers may be able to obtain unpublished data from state-owned energy enterprises directly. Induced transfers are measured by calculating the price gap between the producer or consumer price and a reference price and multiplying that differential by the affected volume produced or consumed. Measuring the value of special features introduced into the tax code to favour certain industries or activities of those industries (such as investment in productive capital) can be a complex endeavor. Some countries do this exercise already and report the annual value of those tax breaks in their periodic tax-expenditure reports. However, what is considered a tax expenditure varies from one country to another, in particular depending on the tax code structure. When countries do not produce tax-expenditure reports, the analysist must estimate the difference in the revenues that would be owed to the government under the baseline conditions (that he needs to determine) and with the special tax feature.
Value of subsidies to capture fisheries presenting a risk (moderate or high) of encouraging unsustainable fishing in the absence of effective fisheries management22
Fisheries subsidies or “support” can “pose risks to the sustainability and productivity of fisheries when it encourages the build-up of excess fishing capacity; overfishing; and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing” (OECD, 2022). The extent to which measures can encourage unsustainable fishing depends on the type of subsidy offered (and how directly it impacts fishing costs and benefits) as well how well the subsidized fisheries are managed, whether the target fish stocks are healthy and whether, the subsidies are targeted to well-managed fisheries harvesting healthy stocks (OECD, 2022).
However, according to OECD (2022)23,in the absence of effective fisheries management:
Value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity in other sectors
When analysing incentives, including subsidies, harmful for biodiversity, countries might choose to consider other sectors than agriculture, fisheries or fossil fuels. Such sectors could be, but are not limited to, transport (e.g. road construction) or water (e.g. price subsidies).
For examples of potentially harmful subsidies in other sectors, see Matthews, A. and K. Karousakis (2022), "Identifying and assessing subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity: A comparative review of existing national-level assessments and insights for good practice."
Value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity
Depending on the reporting option selected by the country/institution (i.e. global data base or national data) data may be collected through information already reported to the OECD and others including the FAO and IDB, IMF and IEA (depending on the sectors).
Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity
The OECD database on Producer Support Estimate (PSE) collects data on government support to agriculture. 54 countries provide data to this database (as of March 2024), covering about 75% of global agricultural value-added. Data is reported annually and classified based on support implementation criteria.
In relation to the reporting on the “Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity”,the OECD has found that agricultural support provided throughmarket price support, payments based on output, and the unconstrained use of variable inputs, are the potentially most harmful to environment, and thereby could affect biodiversity in particular countries (Henderson and Lankoski, 2019; DeBoe, 2020a,b).
Value of fossil fuel subsidies (production and consumption)
This indicator corresponds to the SDG indicator 12c but is presented as total monetary value rather than per unit of GDP. Direct transfers are generally reported in government budgets, and well documented in sectoral and Finance Ministries, broken down by programme if not by fuel. Those that meet the SNA definition of “subsidies” – i.e., subsidies on products, and other subsidies on production – can also be found in a country’s System of National Accounts. Budget documents are publicly available for most countries. The degree to which information on individual programmes is itemized in those reports is highly variable, however. Support to corporations involved in energy production or transformation may sometimes be found in their annual reports, for example. In some cases, researchers may be able to obtain unpublished data from state-owned energy enterprises directly. Induced transfer are measured by calculating the price-gap between the producer or consumer price and a reference price, and multiplying that differential by the affected volume produced or consumed. Measuring the value of special features introduced into the tax code to favour certain industries or activities of those industries (such as investment in productive capital) can be a complex endeavour. Some countries do this exercise already and report the annual value of those tax features in their periodic tax-expenditure reports. However, what is considered a tax expenditure varies from one country to another, in particular depending on the tax code structure. When countries do not produce tax-expenditure reports, the analysist must construct a model and estimate the difference in the revenues that would be owed to the government under the baseline conditions and with the special tax feature. For further details on the method of computation as explained in the metadata sheet of SDG 12c. Please refer to the sources below (11. References)
Value of subsidies to capture fisheries with a risk (moderate or high) of encouraging unsustainable fishing in the absence of effective fisheries management
Every two years the OECD publishes the OECD Review of Fisheries. These reports present information on fish stock health and productivity, fisheries management and support for fisheries in OECD countries and other major fishing nations. The estimates of fisheries support are collated in the OECD Fisheries Support Estimates (FSE) database. In 2022, the OECD FSE data covered 30 OECD countries and 10 other large fishing nations, which, together, accounted for 90% of world landings (by volume) over 2018-20. The FSE database records information on direct support to individuals and companies in the fishing sector, such as fuel and vessel subsidies or income support, as well as public financing of fisheries services and infrastructure, such as monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS), port construction and operation, or payments for access to foreign waters. The OECD classifies support to fisheries into four categories reflecting on the risk of encouraging unsustainable fishing posed by each policy type in the absence of effective management The four categories –high risk, moderate risk, uncertain risk and no risk – were defined and agreed by the OECD Fisheries Committee using over two decades of economic and policy research conducted by the OECD and others. The classification and the justification for the breakdown are discussed in the OECD Review of Fisheries 2022. Details on how support to fisheries data are collected by the OECD, with data reporting directly from governments, and how the data is processed and published can be found in the OECD Fisheries Support Estimate (FSE) Manual.
Value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity
Depending on the reporting option selected by the country/institution (i.e. global data base or national data) data may be collected through information already reported to the OECD and others including FAO, IDB, the IMF and IEA (depending on the sector).
Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity
The OECD PSE database collects data on government support to agriculture on an annual basis from national governments within the OECD, as well as from other complementary sources for non-OECD countries covered in the dataset. The data is verified and checked by the OECD Secretariat (Trade and Agriculture Directorate) before it is made publicly available online.
In relation to the reporting on the “Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity”,the OECD has found that agricultural support provided throughmarket price support, payments based on output, and the unconstrained use of variable inputs, are the potentially most harmful to environment, and thereby could affect biodiversity in particular countries (Henderson and Lankoski, 2019; DeBoe, 2020a,b).
Sources: Henderson and Lankoski (2019) http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/add0f27c-en; DeBoe (2020a) https://doi.org/10.1787/6bc916e7-en. DeBoe (2020b), https://doi.org/10.1787/3d459f91-en
For further information see also OECD (2023), Agricultural Policy Monitoring and Evaluation 2023: Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b14de474-en.
Value of fossil fuel subsidies (production and consumption)
See https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/files/Metadat... and Fossil Fuel Subsidy Tracker (fossilfuelsubsidytracker.org))
Data are already collected to report against SDG 12.c.
Value of subsidies to capture fisheries with a risk (moderate or high) of encouraging unsustainable fishing
OECD already collects data from countries and categorises the support by its risk of encouraging unsustainable fishing.
The data are based on information submitted by national authorities, complemented by publicly available information when there is no direct co-operation between national authorities and the OECD Committee for Fisheries.
The three databases are available publicly
Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity
Value of fossil fuel subsidies (production and consumption)
Value of subsidies to capture fisheries with a risk (moderate or high) of encouraging unsustainable fishing
Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity
Value of fossil fuel subsidies (production and consumption)
Value of subsidies to capture fisheries with a risk (moderate or high) of encouraging unsustainable fishing
Value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity
Data should be provided annually
Value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity
Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity
Value of fossil fuel subsidies (production and consumption)
Value of subsidies to capture fisheries with a risk (moderate or high) of encouraging unsustainable fishing
Value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity
Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity
Value of fossil fuel subsidies (production and consumption)
Value of subsidies to capture fisheries with a risk (moderate or high) of encouraging unsustainable fishing
Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity
Value of fossil fuel subsidies (production and consumption)
Value of subsidies to capture fisheries with a risk (moderate or high) of encouraging unsustainable fishing
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
6d.1 Description of the methodology
N/A
6d.2 Additional methodological details
N/A
6d.3 Description of the mechanism for collecting data from countries
N/A
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.C for the fossil fuel data
No
N/A
Goal D: Adequate means of implementation, including financial resources, capacity-building, technical and scientific cooperation, and access to and transfer of technology to fully implement the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework are secured and equitably accessible to all Parties, especially developing country Parties, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing States, as well as countries with economies in transition, progressively closing the biodiversity finance gap of $700 billion per year, and aligning financial flows with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the 2050 Vision for biodiversity.
Target 14: Ensure the full integration of biodiversity and its multiple values into policies, regulations, planning and development processes, poverty eradication strategies, strategic environmental assessments, environmental impact assessments and, as appropriate, national accounting, within and across all levels of government and across all sectors, in particular those with significant impacts on biodiversity, progressively aligning all relevant public and private activities, and fiscal and financial flows with the goals and targets of this framework.
Depends on the data set. See above for further detail.
Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity
Value of fossil fuel subsidies (production and consumption)
https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/files/Metadat... and Home - Fossil Fuel Subsidies (fossilfuelsubsidytracker.org))
Value of subsidies to capture fisheries with a risk (moderate or high) of encouraging unsustainable fishing
The FSE data is produced by the OECD Fisheries and Aquaculture Unit in the OECD Trade and Agriculture Directorate (TAD), which can be reached at: fish.contact@oecd.org. The overall input of the OECD to the CBD process is led by Katia Karousakis: katia.karousakis@oecd.org
OECD (2022), OECD Review of Fisheries 2022, OECD Publishing, Paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/9c3ad238-en
European Commission, Toolbox on Phasing out Environmentally Harmful Subsidies (europa.eu)https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/3859598/69...
The state of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022. Repurposing food and agricultural policies to make healthy diets more affordable https://www.fao.org/3/cc0639en/cc0639en.pdf SDG 12c
SDG12c https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/files/Metadat...
The OECD Fisheries Support Estimate (FSE) Manual
OECD (2023), Agricultural Policy Monitoring and Evaluation 2023: Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b14de474-en.
The Nature of Subsidies: A step-by-step guide to repurpose subsidies harmful to biodiversity and improve their impacts on people and nature (2024) The Nature of Subsidies: A step-by-step guide to repurpose subsidies harmful to biodiversity and improve their impacts on people and nature | BIOFIN
Matthews, A. and K. Karousakis (2022), "Identifying and assessing subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity: A comparative review of existing national-level assessments and insights for good practice", OECD Environment Working Papers, No. 206, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/3e9118d3-en
UNEP (2019),Measuring Fossil Fuel Subsidies in the Context of the Sustainable Development Goals, UN Environment, Nairobi, Kenya FossilFuel.pdf (unep.org)
OECD and IISD, Fossil Fuel Subsidy Tracker, Home - Fossil Fuel Subsidies (fossilfuelsubsidytracker.org)
18.2 Value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity.
Disaggregation of the headline indicator:
All the values are to be reported in national currency in current values.
Explanation: The disaggregated values are taken from the formerly proposed complementary indicators; the value of subsidies to capture fisheries is new, proposed by the TEG. None of the disaggregation options are mandatory but can be voluntarily chosen by countries. In case of the disaggregation for the fishery sector and fossil fuels, datasets with data for some countries exist and can be used within the template. Further information below.
Justification for revising the proposed headline indicator: The headline indicator as it is worded in Table 2 of CBD/COP/DEC/15/5 would only allow countries to report on (positive) reform, but if this were to be reversed in another year, this information would not be recorded. For example, country X might eliminate/reform 2 million worth of harmful incentives in year 1, but then introduce (other) harmful incentives worth 10 million in year 2 or 3. The original wording of the headline indicator only requires that countries report on the reform of harmful incentives in year 1, but does not require the country to report on the introduction of harmful incentives in year 2 or 3. Furthermore, a country with a high value of harmful subsidies/incentives that reforms even a small fraction of them will look to be performing better than a country that has few or no harmful subsidies/incentives and has therefore reformed few or none.
TEG would like to note that there is no standardized, globally agreed methodology for assessing the value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity that are eliminated, phased out or reformed, nor is there a single global dataset providing this information. However, there are datasets and methodologies for assessing the value of (potentially) harmful subsidies and other incentives across particular sectors. Furthermore, changes in these values from one year to the next at national level may represent policy action (reform) but can also reflect other factors e.g., changes in commodity prices. In aggregate, time series data on indicators relevant to evaluating “the value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity” allows for the monitoring of progress towards target 18.2. (i.e., by examining trends over time).
In addition to the headline indicator, the TEG proposes a “binary indicator” to capture the very first part of target 18 regarding the identification of incentives harmful to biodiversity (by 2025). Please refer to the corresponding metadata sheet for the binary indicator.
2024-03-28 12:00:00 UTC
N/A
Headline indicator for Target 18: Identify by 2025, and eliminate, phase out or reform incentives, including subsidies, harmful for biodiversity, in a proportionate, just, fair, effective and equitable way, while substantially and progressively reducing them by at least $500 billion per year by 2030, starting with the most harmful incentives, and scale up positive incentives for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
This indicator quantifies all the incentives including subsidies harmful to biodiversity provided by the Government. Regular reporting on the indicator will reveal the trend of [the value of] incentives including subsidies harmful to biodiversity over time. A decreasing trend indicates that a government is eliminating, phasing out or reforming incentives harmful to biodiversity. On the other hand, an increasing trend suggests the value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity is rising over time.
There is no universally agreed definition of subsidies, as it depends on the context in which the term is discussed. The CBD refers to harmful or perverse incentives to biodiversity as “economic, legal and institutional incentives that emanate from policies or practices that induce unsustainable behavior that destroys biodiversity, often as unanticipated side-effects of policies designed to attain other objectives”. Subsidies are considered a subset of incentives.
In context of this indicator, the focus is on the monetary value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity, including policy measures (e.g. market price support, where relevant).
The WTO defines a subsidy as “a financial contribution by a government, or agent of a government, that confers a benefit on its
recipients” for the purposes of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.
The OECD describes environmental harmful subsidies/support as “all kinds of financial support and regulations that are put into place to enhance the competitiveness of certain products, processes or regions, and that, together with the prevailing taxation regime, (unintentionally) discriminate against sound environmental practices”.
Similarly, in the SEEA, the Central Framework explicitly says, "A definition of PEDS [potentially environmentally damaging subsidies] is not included in the SEEA". Eurostat provides the following guidance and information in this context: Guidance material for the Eurostat PEDS compilation, Potentially environmentally damaging transfers and Background document (discussed in the working group on monetary environmental statistics and accounts in 2022). The Eurostat Guidelines on Environmental subsidies and similar transfers state:
“There is no established definition of potentially environmentally damaging subsidies but there are ideas of how such a definition could be elaborated. One idea is to look at reductions and exemptions related to environmental taxes (using the list of environmental tax bases), which includes tax abatements. Another possible idea is to create a list of potentially harmful activities. This approach is an example of an approach ‘based on beneficiary’ since each subsidy would have to be allocated to the receiving activities and those transfers that are allocated to potentially harmful activities are considered as PEDS. All environmental subsidies and similar transfers should be excluded from the scope.”
It is important for each country to identify subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity within their national context when working on the identification of subsidies (see binary indicator 18.2.).
Value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity
Total value of incentives, including subsidies, that have been identified to be harmful to biodiversity. This value can be either provided as total sum by the countries, or they can choose to use the disaggregation options (agriculture, fisheries, fossil fuels, others), as relevant. For the latter, the country would be requested to specify which sectors the data relate to.
If the data are reported directly by Parties, they should be reported annually and in the national currency in current values.
Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity
The OECD database on Producer Support Estimate (PSE) collects data on government support to agriculture. 54 countries provide data to this database (as of March 2024), covering about 75% of global agricultural value-added. In relation to the reporting on the “Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity”,the OECD has found that agricultural support provided throughmarket price support, payments based on output, and the unconstrained use of variable inputs, are the potentially most harmful to environment, and thereby could affect biodiversity in particular countries (Henderson and Lankoski, 2019; DeBoe, 2020a,b).
Sources: Henderson and Lankoski (2019) http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/add0f27c-en; DeBoe (2020a) https://doi.org/10.1787/6bc916e7-en. DeBoe (2020b), https://doi.org/10.1787/3d459f91-en
Value of fossil fuel subsidies (production and consumption)21
Relevant measures include: 1) direct transfer of government funds; 2) induced transfers (price support); and 3) tax expenditure, other revenue foregone, and underpricing of goods and services.
Concepts:
Direct transfers are generally reported in government budgets, and well documented in sectoral and Finance Ministries, broken down by programme if not by fuel. Those that meet the System of National Accounts (SNA) definition of “subsidies” – i.e., subsidies on products, and other subsidies on production – can also be found in a country’s System of National Accounts. Budget documents are publicly available for most countries. The degree to which information on individual programmes is itemized in those reports is highly variable, however. Support to corporations involved in energy production or transformation may sometimes be found in their annual reports, for example. In some cases, researchers may be able to obtain unpublished data from state-owned energy enterprises directly. Induced transfers are measured by calculating the price gap between the producer or consumer price and a reference price and multiplying that differential by the affected volume produced or consumed. Measuring the value of special features introduced into the tax code to favour certain industries or activities of those industries (such as investment in productive capital) can be a complex endeavor. Some countries do this exercise already and report the annual value of those tax breaks in their periodic tax-expenditure reports. However, what is considered a tax expenditure varies from one country to another, in particular depending on the tax code structure. When countries do not produce tax-expenditure reports, the analysist must estimate the difference in the revenues that would be owed to the government under the baseline conditions (that he needs to determine) and with the special tax feature.
Value of subsidies to capture fisheries presenting a risk (moderate or high) of encouraging unsustainable fishing in the absence of effective fisheries management22
Fisheries subsidies or “support” can “pose risks to the sustainability and productivity of fisheries when it encourages the build-up of excess fishing capacity; overfishing; and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing” (OECD, 2022). The extent to which measures can encourage unsustainable fishing depends on the type of subsidy offered (and how directly it impacts fishing costs and benefits) as well how well the subsidized fisheries are managed, whether the target fish stocks are healthy and whether, the subsidies are targeted to well-managed fisheries harvesting healthy stocks (OECD, 2022).
However, according to OECD (2022)23,in the absence of effective fisheries management:
Value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity in other sectors
When analysing incentives, including subsidies, harmful for biodiversity, countries might choose to consider other sectors than agriculture, fisheries or fossil fuels. Such sectors could be, but are not limited to, transport (e.g. road construction) or water (e.g. price subsidies).
For examples of potentially harmful subsidies in other sectors, see Matthews, A. and K. Karousakis (2022), "Identifying and assessing subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity: A comparative review of existing national-level assessments and insights for good practice."
Value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity
Depending on the reporting option selected by the country/institution (i.e. global data base or national data) data may be collected through information already reported to the OECD and others including the FAO and IDB, IMF and IEA (depending on the sectors).
Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity
The OECD database on Producer Support Estimate (PSE) collects data on government support to agriculture. 54 countries provide data to this database (as of March 2024), covering about 75% of global agricultural value-added. Data is reported annually and classified based on support implementation criteria.
In relation to the reporting on the “Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity”,the OECD has found that agricultural support provided throughmarket price support, payments based on output, and the unconstrained use of variable inputs, are the potentially most harmful to environment, and thereby could affect biodiversity in particular countries (Henderson and Lankoski, 2019; DeBoe, 2020a,b).
Value of fossil fuel subsidies (production and consumption)
This indicator corresponds to the SDG indicator 12c but is presented as total monetary value rather than per unit of GDP. Direct transfers are generally reported in government budgets, and well documented in sectoral and Finance Ministries, broken down by programme if not by fuel. Those that meet the SNA definition of “subsidies” – i.e., subsidies on products, and other subsidies on production – can also be found in a country’s System of National Accounts. Budget documents are publicly available for most countries. The degree to which information on individual programmes is itemized in those reports is highly variable, however. Support to corporations involved in energy production or transformation may sometimes be found in their annual reports, for example. In some cases, researchers may be able to obtain unpublished data from state-owned energy enterprises directly. Induced transfer are measured by calculating the price-gap between the producer or consumer price and a reference price, and multiplying that differential by the affected volume produced or consumed. Measuring the value of special features introduced into the tax code to favour certain industries or activities of those industries (such as investment in productive capital) can be a complex endeavour. Some countries do this exercise already and report the annual value of those tax features in their periodic tax-expenditure reports. However, what is considered a tax expenditure varies from one country to another, in particular depending on the tax code structure. When countries do not produce tax-expenditure reports, the analysist must construct a model and estimate the difference in the revenues that would be owed to the government under the baseline conditions and with the special tax feature. For further details on the method of computation as explained in the metadata sheet of SDG 12c. Please refer to the sources below (11. References)
Value of subsidies to capture fisheries with a risk (moderate or high) of encouraging unsustainable fishing in the absence of effective fisheries management
Every two years the OECD publishes the OECD Review of Fisheries. These reports present information on fish stock health and productivity, fisheries management and support for fisheries in OECD countries and other major fishing nations. The estimates of fisheries support are collated in the OECD Fisheries Support Estimates (FSE) database. In 2022, the OECD FSE data covered 30 OECD countries and 10 other large fishing nations, which, together, accounted for 90% of world landings (by volume) over 2018-20. The FSE database records information on direct support to individuals and companies in the fishing sector, such as fuel and vessel subsidies or income support, as well as public financing of fisheries services and infrastructure, such as monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS), port construction and operation, or payments for access to foreign waters. The OECD classifies support to fisheries into four categories reflecting on the risk of encouraging unsustainable fishing posed by each policy type in the absence of effective management The four categories –high risk, moderate risk, uncertain risk and no risk – were defined and agreed by the OECD Fisheries Committee using over two decades of economic and policy research conducted by the OECD and others. The classification and the justification for the breakdown are discussed in the OECD Review of Fisheries 2022. Details on how support to fisheries data are collected by the OECD, with data reporting directly from governments, and how the data is processed and published can be found in the OECD Fisheries Support Estimate (FSE) Manual.
Value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity
Depending on the reporting option selected by the country/institution (i.e. global data base or national data) data may be collected through information already reported to the OECD and others including FAO, IDB, the IMF and IEA (depending on the sector).
Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity
The OECD PSE database collects data on government support to agriculture on an annual basis from national governments within the OECD, as well as from other complementary sources for non-OECD countries covered in the dataset. The data is verified and checked by the OECD Secretariat (Trade and Agriculture Directorate) before it is made publicly available online.
In relation to the reporting on the “Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity”,the OECD has found that agricultural support provided throughmarket price support, payments based on output, and the unconstrained use of variable inputs, are the potentially most harmful to environment, and thereby could affect biodiversity in particular countries (Henderson and Lankoski, 2019; DeBoe, 2020a,b).
Sources: Henderson and Lankoski (2019) http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/add0f27c-en; DeBoe (2020a) https://doi.org/10.1787/6bc916e7-en. DeBoe (2020b), https://doi.org/10.1787/3d459f91-en
For further information see also OECD (2023), Agricultural Policy Monitoring and Evaluation 2023: Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b14de474-en.
Value of fossil fuel subsidies (production and consumption)
See https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/files/Metadat... and Fossil Fuel Subsidy Tracker (fossilfuelsubsidytracker.org))
Data are already collected to report against SDG 12.c.
Value of subsidies to capture fisheries with a risk (moderate or high) of encouraging unsustainable fishing
OECD already collects data from countries and categorises the support by its risk of encouraging unsustainable fishing.
The data are based on information submitted by national authorities, complemented by publicly available information when there is no direct co-operation between national authorities and the OECD Committee for Fisheries.
The three databases are available publicly
Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity
Value of fossil fuel subsidies (production and consumption)
Value of subsidies to capture fisheries with a risk (moderate or high) of encouraging unsustainable fishing
Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity
Value of fossil fuel subsidies (production and consumption)
Value of subsidies to capture fisheries with a risk (moderate or high) of encouraging unsustainable fishing
Value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity
Data should be provided annually
Value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity
Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity
Value of fossil fuel subsidies (production and consumption)
Value of subsidies to capture fisheries with a risk (moderate or high) of encouraging unsustainable fishing
Value of subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity
Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity
Value of fossil fuel subsidies (production and consumption)
Value of subsidies to capture fisheries with a risk (moderate or high) of encouraging unsustainable fishing
Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity
Value of fossil fuel subsidies (production and consumption)
Value of subsidies to capture fisheries with a risk (moderate or high) of encouraging unsustainable fishing
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
6d.1 Description of the methodology
N/A
6d.2 Additional methodological details
N/A
6d.3 Description of the mechanism for collecting data from countries
N/A
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.C for the fossil fuel data
No
N/A
Goal D: Adequate means of implementation, including financial resources, capacity-building, technical and scientific cooperation, and access to and transfer of technology to fully implement the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework are secured and equitably accessible to all Parties, especially developing country Parties, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing States, as well as countries with economies in transition, progressively closing the biodiversity finance gap of $700 billion per year, and aligning financial flows with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the 2050 Vision for biodiversity.
Target 14: Ensure the full integration of biodiversity and its multiple values into policies, regulations, planning and development processes, poverty eradication strategies, strategic environmental assessments, environmental impact assessments and, as appropriate, national accounting, within and across all levels of government and across all sectors, in particular those with significant impacts on biodiversity, progressively aligning all relevant public and private activities, and fiscal and financial flows with the goals and targets of this framework.
Depends on the data set. See above for further detail.
Value of agricultural subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity
Value of fossil fuel subsidies (production and consumption)
https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/files/Metadat... and Home - Fossil Fuel Subsidies (fossilfuelsubsidytracker.org))
Value of subsidies to capture fisheries with a risk (moderate or high) of encouraging unsustainable fishing
The FSE data is produced by the OECD Fisheries and Aquaculture Unit in the OECD Trade and Agriculture Directorate (TAD), which can be reached at: fish.contact@oecd.org. The overall input of the OECD to the CBD process is led by Katia Karousakis: katia.karousakis@oecd.org
OECD (2022), OECD Review of Fisheries 2022, OECD Publishing, Paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/9c3ad238-en
European Commission, Toolbox on Phasing out Environmentally Harmful Subsidies (europa.eu)https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/3859598/69...
The state of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022. Repurposing food and agricultural policies to make healthy diets more affordable https://www.fao.org/3/cc0639en/cc0639en.pdf SDG 12c
SDG12c https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/files/Metadat...
The OECD Fisheries Support Estimate (FSE) Manual
OECD (2023), Agricultural Policy Monitoring and Evaluation 2023: Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b14de474-en.
The Nature of Subsidies: A step-by-step guide to repurpose subsidies harmful to biodiversity and improve their impacts on people and nature (2024) The Nature of Subsidies: A step-by-step guide to repurpose subsidies harmful to biodiversity and improve their impacts on people and nature | BIOFIN
Matthews, A. and K. Karousakis (2022), "Identifying and assessing subsidies and other incentives harmful to biodiversity: A comparative review of existing national-level assessments and insights for good practice", OECD Environment Working Papers, No. 206, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/3e9118d3-en
UNEP (2019),Measuring Fossil Fuel Subsidies in the Context of the Sustainable Development Goals, UN Environment, Nairobi, Kenya FossilFuel.pdf (unep.org)
OECD and IISD, Fossil Fuel Subsidy Tracker, Home - Fossil Fuel Subsidies (fossilfuelsubsidytracker.org)
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