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The purpose of this indicator is to develop a methodology for tracking the total amount of approved funding to promote the development, transfer, dissemination, and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies.

This indicator follows a two-pronged approach: 

Level 1. Use globally available data to create a proxy of funding flowing to developing countries for environmentally sound technologies, or of trade in environmentally sound technologies

Level 2. Collect national data on investment in environmentally sound technologies.

Annual

Environmentally Sound Technologies (ESTs) are technologies that have the potential for significantly improved environmental performance relative to other technologies. ESTs protect the environment, are less polluting, use resources in a sustainable manner, recycle more of their wastes and products, and handle all residual wastes in a more environmentally acceptable way than the technologies for which 2 Last updated: November 2019 they are substitutes. ESTs are not just individual technologies. They can also be defined as total systems that include know-how, procedures, goods and services, and equipment, as well as organizational and managerial procedures for promoting environmental sustainability. This means that any attempt to provide an assessment of investment into ESTs on either a global or national level must incorporate ways to track funding flows into both hard and soft technologies.

The definition of an environmentally sound technology (EST) to be used to track SDG 17.1

Include both hardware and software, including total systems that include know-how, procedures, processes, goods and services, equipment, as well as organizational and managerial procedures for promoting environmental sustainability.

EST definition at national level

In deciding which technologies are most appropriate, there will always be trade-offs between cost and a range of economic, social, health and environmental impacts, to be determined based on national or local contexts and priorities. It would also not be feasible for all countries to strive towards the best available technologies globally if these are not appropriate in a domestic context. Given the highly contextual nature of ESTs, it is, therefore, something that is better defined at the national level, taking into account the national context and mainstream technologies nationally. However, there is a real need to support national, sub-national governments and other actors with decision-making and defining the most nationally or locally appropriate technologies.

There is no disaggregation of the data.

The methodology for tracking the total amount of approved funding to promote the development, transfer, dissemination, and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies has a two-pronged approach:

Level 1. Use globally available data to create a proxy of funding flowing to developing countries for environmentally sound technologies, or of trade in environmentally sound technologies. 

The international proxy that provides the closest indicator of investment flows is that of trade (e.g. traded goods and services that have been internationally agreed to have a positive environmental benefit), using HS codes, preferably more than 6-digit level.

The sectors deemed to be ESTs through historical research include:

•  Air pollution control (APC)
•  Wastewater Management (WWM),
•  Solid and Hazardous waste management (SHWM),
• Renewable Energy (RE), 
• Environmentally Preferable Products (EPPs)
• Water Supply & Sanitation (relating to indicators for #6 and #11)
•  Energy Storage & Distribution (relating to indicators for #7 and #13)
• Land & Water Protection & Remediation (relating to indicators for #14 and #15

There are two key sub-indicators which are initially to be tracked by proxy of trade-in agreed/approved ESTs:

a) global and b) national

Level 2. Collect national data on investment in environmentally sound technologies.

Identifying ESTs at the national/ sub-national level should be a simple process based on a set of criteria and simple analysis tools (excel form), which could be used to evaluate if the environmental objective is achieved and if the technology is suitable for the local market.

The environmental objective can be assessed with the performance and operational data (in relevance to the environmental objective) and if the technology has any negative environmental impact (cross-media effects). Suitability of the technology for the national market could involve assessments on criteria related to economics, market considerations and suitability to local natural conditions.

N/A

• Compiling data on this indicator presents a challenge in terms of consistent definitions and approaches. 
• An additional limitation of this indicator includes: different baseline years in numerous available databases and the different purposes of available databases

Various definitions of ‘environmentally sound technology’ exist and are in use. Terms such as ‘environmental technology’, ‘clean technology’, ‘and cleantech ’or ‘low- carbon technology’ are sometimes used, although low-carbon technology can be considered as a sub-set of green technology. Other less commonly used terms include climate-smart and climate-friendly technology.

All the metadata shown in this document was gathered from United Nation Statistics Division. The metadata was extracted from  https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/.