diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 367b8396af2..b8a031c6f1e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -16,6 +16,9 @@ Updates:
 
 - Additional Cassandra semantic attributes
   ([#1217](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/1217))
+- OTEL_EXPORTER environment variable replaced with OTEL_TRACE_EXPORTER and
+  OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER which each accept only a single value, not a list.
+  ([#1318](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/1318))
 - `process.runtime.description` resource convention: Add `java.vm.name`
   ([#1242](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/1242))
 - Refine span name guideline for SQL database spans
diff --git a/exporters b/exporters
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e69de29bb2d
diff --git a/spec-compliance-matrix.md b/spec-compliance-matrix.md
index 7dfcf6a7ef5..04ab5726873 100644
--- a/spec-compliance-matrix.md
+++ b/spec-compliance-matrix.md
@@ -126,7 +126,8 @@ status of the feature is not known.
 |OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_*                          |   | +  |   | +    | +  | -    | - |    | - | -  | -   |
 |OTEL_EXPORTER_JAEGER_*                        |   | +  |   | +    | +  | -    | - | +  | - | -  | -   |
 |OTEL_EXPORTER_ZIPKIN_*                        |   | +  |   | +    |    | -    | - |    | - | -  | -   |
-|OTEL_EXPORTER                                 |   | -  |   | +    |    |      |   |    |   |  - | -   |
+|OTEL_TRACE_EXPORTER                           |   | -  |   | -    |    |      |   |    |   | -  | -   |
+|OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER                        |   | -  |   | -    |    |      |   |    |   | -  | -   |
 |OTEL_SPAN_ATTRIBUTE_COUNT_LIMIT               |   | +  |   | +    | +  |      |   |    |   | -  | -   |
 |OTEL_SPAN_EVENT_COUNT_LIMIT                   |   | +  |   | +    | +  |      |   |    |   | -  | -   |
 |OTEL_SPAN_LINK_COUNT_LIMIT                    |   | +  |   | +    | +  |      |   |    |   | -  | -   |
diff --git a/specification/sdk-environment-variables.md b/specification/sdk-environment-variables.md
index b3cd5104983..85a1e8b8bf4 100644
--- a/specification/sdk-environment-variables.md
+++ b/specification/sdk-environment-variables.md
@@ -84,20 +84,23 @@ See [OpenTelemetry Protocol Exporter Configuration Options](./protocol/exporter.
 
 ## Exporter Selection
 
+We define environment variables for setting a single exporter per signal.
+
 | Name          | Description                                                                  | Default |
 | ------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------- |
-| OTEL_EXPORTER | Exporter to be used, can be a comma-separated list to use multiple exporters | "otlp"  |
+| OTEL_TRACE_EXPORTER | Trace exporter to be used | "otlp"  |
+| OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER | Metrics exporter to be used | "otlp"  |
 
-Known values for OTEL_EXPORTER are:
+Known values for OTEL_TRACE_EXPORTER are:
 
-- `"otlp"`: [OTLP Trace and Metrics](./protocol/otlp.md)
+- `"otlp"`: [OTLP](./protocol/otlp.md)
 - `"jaeger"`: [Jaeger gRPC](https://www.jaegertracing.io/docs/1.21/apis/#protobuf-via-grpc-stable)
 - `"zipkin"`: [Zipkin](https://zipkin.io/zipkin-api/) (Defaults to [protobuf](https://github.com/openzipkin/zipkin-api/blob/master/zipkin.proto) format)
-- `"prometheus"`: [Prometheus](https://github.com/prometheus/docs/blob/master/content/docs/instrumenting/exposition_formats.md)
-- `"otlp_span"`: [OTLP Trace](./protocol/otlp.md)
-- `"otlp_metric"`: [OTLP Metrics](./protocol/otlp.md)
 
-Note: "otlp" is equivalent to "otlp_span,otlp_metric".
+Known values for OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER are:
+
+- `"otlp"`: [OTLP](./protocol/otlp.md)
+- `"prometheus"`: [Prometheus](https://github.com/prometheus/docs/blob/master/content/docs/instrumenting/exposition_formats.md)
 
 ## Language Specific Environment Variables