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Defining Environmental Goods & Services |
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Literature on environmental goods and services does not provide an internationally agreed definition or classification for EGS. Environmental services can be distinguished as a category on its own among other economy-supporting services. The WTO Committee for Trade and Environment (CTE) is currently running a process to define environmental goods.
In the course of this process it transpired that different countries’ definitions of environmental goods might range from goods used for managing waste and pollution to innovations for large-scale production of renewable energy. Some governments may want to limit the list to ‘single-use’ environmental goods whilst others include all “environmentally preferable products” i.e products that cause significantly less environmental harm than alternative products used for the same purpose. The ‘environmentally preferable’ approach would open up the list of environmental goods for products like bicycles and biodegradable materials (OECD, 2005).
The OECD defined the EGS industry as follows: “The environmental goods and services industry consists of activities which produce goods and services to measure, prevent, limit, minimise or correct environmental damage to water, air and soil, as well as problems related to waste, noise and eco-systems. This includes cleaner technologies, products and services that reduce environmental risk and minimise pollution and resource use (OECD, 1999).”
The Department of Trade and Industry in the United Kingdom divides the EGS industry into the following sub-sectors:
1. Air Pollution Control
2. Cleaner Technologies and processes
3. Decommissioning/Decontamination of Nuclear Sites
4. Environmental Consultancy
5. Environmental Monitoring, Instrumentation and Analysis
6. Marine Pollution Control
7. Noise and Vibration Control
8. Remediation and Reclamation of Land
9. Renewable Energy
10. Waste Management, Recovery and Recycling
11. Water Supply and Waste Water Treatment
(dti, 2006)
As illustrated in the diagram there appears to be a group of measurable goods and services that are widely agreed on as forming the “core” of the environmental industry. Beyond this core the boundaries of the EGS industry are expanding as new environmental solutions emerge. Boundaries around and among sub-sectors are neither fixed nor defined with any precision.
The EGS Forum Steering Committee (EGSfsc) has therefore resolved to acknowledge clusters or groupings of sub-sectors - the rationale being to be inclusive whilst operating efficiently. Smaller sub-sectors such as organic agriculture would for example find a home in the Natural Resource Management cluster. |
