Policy Instruments for the Environment (PINE) Database

PINE is a unique database gathering structured and harmonised official information on policy instruments relevant to environmental protection and natural resource management. The database includes both quantitative and qualitative information on taxes and fees, subsidies and payments, tradable permits and offsets, deposit-refund schemes and voluntary approaches. Policy instruments in PINE are screened and tagged for their relevance to achieving one or more environmental goals, including reducing emissions or protecting biodiversity.

Dataset

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About

Economic instruments can be an effective and cost-efficient way to achieve environmental goals, providing market signals that influence the behaviour of producers and consumers. They can incorporate environmental costs and benefits into the budgets of businesses and households by increasing (or decreasing) the price of a resource-intensive or polluting product or service.

Since the 1990s, the OECD PINE database has collected harmonised data on policy instruments for the environment, which can be used for policy analysis, monitoring and country analysis. For each instrument, it records when it was introduced, what it applies to, its geographical coverage, and the environmental domains and industries concerned.

The OECD PINE database in 2026

Today, the database includes information on 4 896 policy instruments in 154 economies globally. 68% of instruments are implemented at the national or federal level, 28% at the state or provincial level, and the remaining 4% include instruments implemented by supranational or local jurisdictions.

PINE data are harmonised, validated, and are suitable for statistical analysis. As of January 2026, 86% of instruments in PINE are in force. 14% are inactive and include: suspended, superseded or discontinued instruments.

Environmental domains

Environmental domains represent the focal issues related to environmental protection or natural resource management covered by a policy instrument. The environmental domain tagging in PINE can support the tracking of progress towards a wide range of environmental objectives.

Following OECD definitions and official methodologies, each policy instrument is tagged based on its direct effect(s) on one or more of the 22 environmental domains in scope of PINE. As of 2026, 43% of instruments are relevant to climate change mitigation, followed by air pollution (26%), biodiversity (22%) and circular economy (21%).

Economic activities

The database also tracks the specific economic activities covered by each policy instrument. The tagging uses the UN's International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC Rev. 4), allowing the data in PINE to be analysed alongside sectoral economic indicators and national accounts.

As of 2026, the largest number of sector-specific instruments in PINE covered manufacturing activities, followed by the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector. The choice of instrument differs considerably by sector. For example, almost 90% of instruments for wholesale and retail activities are taxes or fees (e.g., excise taxes on the sale of plastic bags), while construction activities are primarily (66% of sector-specific instruments) supported via subsidies and payments (e.g., tax credits on environmentally certified construction materials).

Micro-data

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Taxes and fees

The latest PINE data show that Environmentally Related Tax Revenue (ERTR) made up about 4.3% of total tax revenue on average in OECD countries in 2024, down from 5.9% in 2000. They remain a small part of the overall tax mix. Energy taxes are the largest component (2.9%) of total tax revenue, followed by transport taxes (1.2%), while pollution taxes (0.2%) and resource taxes (under 0.1%) play only a minor role.

Chile's Green Tax

PINE includes, for example, information on Chile’s Green Tax, introduced in 2017, which prices GHG and air pollutant emissions from large stationary sources. The tax was complemented in 2023 by a tradable emission-reduction certificates system.

Environmentally-beneficial subsidies and payments

As of 2026, the database includes 1179 environmentally positive subsidies and payments. Most are grants (44%), followed by tax reductions (29%), tax credits (9%), per unit subsidies (8%) and payments for ecosystem services (5%).

Costa Rica’s Payment for Environmental Services programme

PINE includes, for example, information on Costa Rica’s Payment for Environmental Services programme. Introduced in 1997, this instrument provides financial support to landowners for the conservation of forests, reforestation programmes or the adoption of sustainable land management practices. By increasing the relative value of standing forests, PES can help to mitigate deforestation, land degradation and biodiversity loss.

Tradable permits and offsets

The PINE database includes 186 tradable permits and offsets active in 51 countries as of January 2026. More than half (53%) of these instruments are tradable quotas, followed by tradable credits (28%), tradable offsets (11%) and tradable user rights (6%).

Austria's National Emissions Trading System

PINE includes, for example, information on Austria's National Emissions Trading System (NEHG). Introduced in 2022, this instrument prices emissions in sectors not covered by the EU Emission Trading System. Revenue raised from the auctioning of emission permits has been used to offset cuts to corporate income taxes.

Deposit-refund schemes

The PINE database includes 62 deposit-refund schemes (DRS) in 29 countries. 63% are implemented at the national or federal level, 34% at the state or provincial level, and 3% at the city or local level.

Slovak Republic’s Deposit-Refund System for Single-Use PET Bottles and Cans

PINE includes, for example, information on the Slovak Republic’s Deposit-Refund System for Single-Use PET Bottles and Cans, introduced in 2022. Combined with other instruments in force since 2018 including landfill taxes and light plastic-bag charges, DRS incentivises the shift from production and consumption towards more resource-efficient and circular economy approaches.

Voluntary approaches

Voluntary approaches account for 4% of PINE instruments in force as of January 2026. About 53% of voluntary approaches are implementation-based programmes with government-set targets, while 44% are target-based with participant-set ambition.

Japan's Voluntary Action Plan

PINE includes, for example, information on Japan’s Voluntary Action Plan (VAP), introduced in 1997 by the Japan Business Federation (commonly referred to as Keidanren). Under the VAP, industries commit to their own emissions and efficiency targets, agreed with government and independently reviewed.

Methodology

Environmental domain tagging in the OECD PINE database

76 Pages

This paper presents tagging methodologies for 22 environmental domains in the OECD Policy INstruments for the Environment (PINE) database, including seven domains on environmental protection (air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution, solid waste, ozone layer, noise and radiation), six domains on natural resource management (fisheries, forests, freshwater, renewable energy, fossil fuels and minerals) and nine cross-cutting domains (climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, land degradation, biodiversity, ocean, chemicals management, energy efficiency, circular economy and mercury). The environmental domains in the PINE database support tracking progress towards domestic and international environmental objectives. Tagging environmental domains allows harmonised comparisons across countries, years and policy instrument types.

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Methodological Guidelines for Environmentally Related Tax Revenue Accounts

31 Pages

This report presents the OECD methodological guidelines for compiling Environmentally Related Tax Revenue accounts. The guidelines are in line with the System of Environmental Economic Accounting and ensure consistency with national and international data sources and manuals.

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Policy instruments for the environment (PINE) micro-data dissemination portal

Visit the About and Methodology sections for details on definitions, scope, and questionnaires.

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Related data

Statistics

Environmentally related tax revenue statistics

ERTR statistics are constructed from tax revenue micro-data collected via the PINE database. Indicators are available by environmental domain and with a breakdown by tax-base category.

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Environment-Economy indicators

Green transition indicators

The Green Transition Indicators dataset compiles indicators across four areas: environmental and resource productivity, natural assets, quality of life, and economic opportunities and policy responses. GT indicators build on the OECD Green Growth Indicators framework and combine 40+ datasets from OECD and other official and country-validated data sources.

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Accounts

Environmentally related tax revenue accounts

ERTR accounts provide breakdowns of ERTR by economic and household activities and by tax-base categories. ERTR accounts are collected from OECD and partner economies via a questionnaire, accounts’ totals are harmonized with ERTR statistics

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Harmonised policy indicators

Climate action and policies measurement framework (CAPMF)

The CAPMF provides internationally harmonised climate mitigation policy data, including stringency values for 130 policy variables aggregated into 56 key climate actions and policies.

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Join the expert network

Policy micro-data is collected via a network of 550+ country experts in ministries and government agencies. Government ministries or agencies, research institutes, and international organisations are welcome to join the network of PINE experts and contribute.

Policy instruments implemented by all levels and branches of government can be integrated into the database. The data are complemented with country-validated information collected and published in OECD analytical reports. Country coordinators, designated through OECD bodies, manage experts’ rights to add and update information. In consultation with the OECD Secretariat, coordinators validate the data via a secure online portal once a year.

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