# **6. Data availability and gaps for economic impact assessments**

This section includes a non-exhaustive list of some of the key data sets that are available for use in the different models described in sections 4 and 5.

- UNCTAD Comrade – includes values and weight of international trade between countries; not mode-specific.

- OECD Transport cost database – an estimate of the transport costs for flows of trade between countries.

- EUROSTAT –value, volume, and mode choice for trade flows between European countries and between Europe and the rest of the world.

- Customs data – both trade value and volume information highly disaggregated to individual shipments. The data are not available for every country.

- ECLAC trade database– a trade data set that includes trade value, volume, and mode choice between Latin American and Caribbean countries and the rest of the world.

- UNCTAD LSCI database – a database describing the Liner Shipping Connectivity Index for each country worldwide from 2006 to 2017.

- UNCTAD Container port throughput data – a data set containing the amount of container traffic handled by each country worldwide from 2004 to 2018. Information is aggregated at country level; traffic at the port level is not available.

- MDS Trans modal database on the schedule of liner shipping companies – a data set that contains the sequence of port calls and their schedule for the Liner Shipping Companies worldwide. The data are available for a fee.

One key issue is that many of these data sources are incomplete or not publicly available. This might restrict the full potential that they offer both in terms of geographical limits (e.g. some trade data for specific countries may be missing) and time limits (e.g. OECD transport cost data ends in 2007 and has not been updated since). In particular, there is an absence in some of these data sources for information on SIDS and LDCs, who may not have national statistics or reporting mechanisms. This is of particular concern, as the IMO sees a special need to consider the impacts of measures on these States (as noted by MEPC 68) and their emerging needs, as noted in resolution A.1110(30).

In such cases, it seems necessary to undertake supplemental analysis to estimate missing data (e.g. applying interpolation or proxies) or to acquire it through companies specialized in data collection. Alternatively, inferences could be made on the likely impacts for a State with missing data by drawing parallels to other States with similar economies, shipping activities, and distances to markets.

# **7. Conclusions and overall recommendations**

This paper presents current state of model-based analysis as it applies to the economic impacts of GHG mitigation measures. This paper aimed to contribute to the objective of the IMO initial Strategy, particularly in regard to the impact assessment of GHG measures on the economies of States, by:

1. Identifying major areas of economic impact of GHG mitigation measures, and the mechanisms by which these impacts could spread through transport and trade systems and the economies of States.

2. Compiling the latest findings on the order of magnitude of economic impacts of GHG mitigation measures on these economic impact areas.

3. Presenting different modeling approaches for use in assessing economic impacts of GHG mitigation measures, along with the best practices on how to select and apply these models for efficient and effective impact assessments.

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