Globally, the environmental goods and services industry is growing rapidly in response to environmental pressures and the shift towards business and government strategies that are more sustainable over the long term. However, the industry which supplies the goods and services that enable businesses and nations to meet environmental challenges is poorly identified, measured and understood.
This manual, which has been jointly developed by the OECD and Eurostat, aims to provide a firm basis for constructing comparable statistics of the environmental industry. It is based on recent experience in OECD countries in building up a quantitative statistical picture of this crosscutting industry that is not well identified in traditional statistical systems.
OECD countries have started to reform their agricultural policies in the last decade. Many countries have also implemented agri-environmental measures that are directly aimed at improving the environment.
What are the changes in land use, farming practices and input use resulting from these reforms? What have been the effects on the environment: soils, water, air, biodiversity, wildlife habitat and landscape? How have regional and local conditions influenced the environmental outcomes? To what extent have agri-environmental measures contributed to achieving sustainable agriculture? And how could such measures be made more effective and cost-efficient?
Through examining concrete policy experiences from OECD countries, this study concludes that agricultural policy reforms can improve the environment, provided they are accompanied by appropriate environmental measures.
Earth's orbits are polluted by more than 100 million debris objects that pose a collision threat to satellites and other spacecraft. The risk of perturbing highly valuable space-based services critical to life on Earth, such as weather monitoring and disaster management, is making debris mitigation an urgent policy challenge. This book provides the latest findings from the OECD project on the economics of space sustainability, which aims to improve decision makers’ understanding of the societal value of space infrastructure and costs of space debris. It provides comprehensive evidence on the growth of space debris, presents methods to evaluate and quantify the value of the satellites at risk and discusses ways to ensure a more sustainable use of the orbital environment. It notably includes case studies from Italy, Japan and Korea on the socio-economic value of different types of space infrastructure and discusses the feasibility and optimal design of fiscal measures and voluntary environmental rating schemes to change operator behaviour. This work is informed by contributions from researchers worldwide involved in the OECD project.
Against the background of a projected doubling of world greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century, this book explores feasible ways to abate them at least cost. Through quantitative analysis, it addresses key climate policy issues including: an ideal set of climate policy tools; the size of the economic and environmental costs of incomplete country or sector coverage of climate change mitigation policies; how to concretely develop a global carbon market; the case for, and what can we reasonably expect from, R&D and technology support policies; and the incentives for major emitting countries to join a climate change mitigation agreement.
Climate change is becoming more evident and, as it increases, will alter the productivity of fisheries and the distribution of fish stocks. From an economic point of view, the changes will have impacts on fisheries and coastal communities in different ways. These expected changes require adaptable and flexible fisheries and aquaculture management policies and governance frameworks. However, the forms of future climate change and the extent of its impact remain uncertain. Fisheries policy makers therefore need to develop strategies and decision-making models in order to adapt to climate change under such uncertainty while taking into account social and economic consequences.
While most work on climate change in the fisheries sector has focused on fisheries science, this book highlights the economic and policy aspects of adapting fisheries to climate change. An outcome of the OECD Workshop on the Economics of Adapting Fisheries to Climate Change, held in June 2010, the book outlines the actions that fisheries policy makers must undertake in the face of climate change. These include: strengthening the global governance system; a broader use of rights-based management systems; ecosystem protection; industry transformation through the ending of environmental harmful subsidies and a focus on demand for sustainably caught seafood; and, in particular, using aquaculture as a key part of the response to climate change.
This report provides a comprehensive assessment of the economic consequences of outdoor air pollution in the coming decades, focusing on the impacts on mortality, morbidity, and changes in crop yields as caused by high concentrations of pollutants. Unless more stringent policies are adopted, findings point to a significant increase in global emissions and concentrations of air pollutants, with severe impacts on human health and the environment. The market impacts of outdoor air pollution are projected to lead to significant economic costs, which are illustrated at the regional and sectoral levels, and to substantial annual global welfare costs.
This report provides a new detailed quantitative assessment of the consequences of climate change on economic growth through to 2060 and beyond. It focuses on how climate change affects different drivers of growth, including labour productivity and capital supply, in different sectors across the world. The sectoral and regional analysis shows that while the impacts of climate change spread across all sectors and all regions, the largest negative consequences are projected to be found in the health and agricultural sectors, with damages especially strong in Africa and Asia.
The Arctic is a vital region that helps preserve the balance of the global climate. The Arctic environment is particularly sensitive to short-lived climate pollutants, including black carbon, due to their strong warming effect. With ambitious policy action to reduce air pollutants, Arctic Council countries would obtain a positive effect on health and the environment throughout their territory, while also helping to slow down climate change by reducing emissions of black carbon. This report calls for ambitious policy action to reduce air pollution in Arctic Council countries, highlighting the environmental, health, and economic benefits from policy action.
This publication is a milestone in the analysis of the distributional impacts of environmental policy. It builds upon existing literature to simultaneously examine disparities in the distribution of environmental impacts and in the distribution of financial effects among households. It provides a conceptual framework for facilitating understanding of the disparities in impacts, reviews empirical evidence through a number of case studies, and analyses policy implications.
This report examines digitalisation’s effects on science, technology and innovation and the associated consequences for policy. In varied and far-reaching ways, digital technologies are changing how scientists work, collaborate and publish. While examining these developments, this book also assesses the effects of digitalisation on longstanding policy themes, from access to publicly funded research data, to the diffusion of technology and its absorption by firms. New and emerging topics are also explored. These include the roles of artificial intelligence and blockchain in science and production, using digital technology to draw on the collective intelligence of the scientific community, advances in the digitalisation of biotechnology, and possible "dark sides" of digitalisation.
Outdoor air pollution kills more than 3 million people across the world every year, and causes health problems from asthma to heart disease for many more. This is costing societies very large amounts in terms of the value of lives lost and ill health. Based on extensive new epidemiological evidence since the 2010 Global Burden of Disease study, and OECD estimates of the Value of Statistical Life, this report provides evidence on the health impacts from air pollution and the related economic costs.
The Climate Action Monitor is a key publication of the International Programme for Action on Climate (IPAC). It provides a synthesis of climate action and progress towards net-zero targets for 51 OECD and OECD partner countries. This year's edition presents a summary of information on greenhouse gas emissions, an assessment of climate-related hazards and recent trends in climate action. Directed towards policymakers and practitioners, the findings suggest that without increased ambition and a significant expansion in national climate action, countries will not be able to meet the net-zero challenge.
The Climate Action Monitor 2022 updates the International Programme for Action on Climate (IPAC) annual comprehensive assessment of country progress towards net-zero goals and the Paris Agreement commitments. This year's edition draws on two new sets of indicators developed by IPAC on climate-related hazards and climate action: climate hazard and exposure indicators and the climate actions and policies measurement framework. These indicators provide granular evidence that although climate action and policies are expanding across the world, government ambition must increase significantly to deal with the range of climate risks faced globally and affecting people's livelihoods.
The transition to the circular economy for the city of Valladolid, Spain represents an opportunity for greater attractiveness and competitiveness, while providing responses to environmental challenges. The city of Valladolid aims to be a reference as a sustainable city, reducing waste, lowering the use of raw materials and increasing the use of renewable energy while stimulating economic growth and social well-being. This report aims to support Valladolid in developing a coherent circular economy strategy, on the basis of various initiatives already in place to finance circular economy projects, raise awareness and promote an entrepreneurial culture on the circular economy.
This report aims to support the city of Umeå in becoming the leader in the circular economy as stated in its strategic plan for 2016-2028. Umeå’s population doubled over the last 50 years, making it one of Europe’s fastest growing cities in a sparsely populated region (Northern Sweden). By 2050, the city is expected to reach a population of 200 000 inhabitants, with consequences on housing, use of natural resources and waste production. As such, the local government is developing a model integrating environmental, social and economic aspects within a circular economy approach. This is in line with the Swedish Government’s objective to strengthen society’s transition to a resource-efficient, circular and bio-based economy.
The City of Groningen is the biggest urban centre of a prevalently rural region and hosts the youngest population in the Netherlands. The presence of renowned universities, the high number of students and a fast growing start-up scene alongside a vibrant business and innovation environment, make Groningen a knowledge hub for the region. Since the Dutch national cabinet decided to phase out natural gas production by 2022, Groningen has intensified its regional leading role in the energy transition aiming to become energy neutral by 2035, according to which the energy demand is met entirely by renewables. In 2018, the Municipal Council took the unanimous decision of making the circular economy a priority for the city, identifying three priority areas: public procurement, waste and knowledge. This case study presents the state of the art of the circular economy in Groningen, the main challenges for designing a circular economy strategy and the ways forward for the city’s circular transition.
While the COVID-19 crisis has put many economic activities on hold, notably tourism, a pillar of Granada’s economy, it has also created a momentum towards more sustainable production and consumption patterns, in line with carbon neutrality goals. The pandemic also magnified the need for new urban paradigms while increasing awareness on the potential of the circular economy to transition to low carbon cities and regions, whilst also stimulating economic growth, creating jobs, and improving people’s lives and social well-being. This report summarises the findings of a two-year policy dialogue with the city of Granada in Spain, and provides recommendations and a vision to transition to a circular economy. It draws on Granada’s own experience with the transformation of a wastewater treatment plant into a bio factory in 2015, which contributed to increased water reuse and the production of new material from waste. The report argues that the city of Granada can play a role as a promoter, facilitator and enabler of the circular economy. This will require a collective and coordinated approach across all stakeholders and levels of government.
Cities and regions play a fundamental role in the transition from a linear to a circular economy, as they are responsible for key policies in local public services such as transport, solid waste, water and energy that affect citizens’ well-being, economic growth and environmental quality. This synthesis report builds on the findings from 51 cities and regions contributing to the OECD Survey on the Circular Economy in Cities and Regions and on lessons learnt from the OECD Policy Dialogues on the circular economy carried out in Groningen (Netherlands), Umeå (Sweden), Valladolid (Spain) and on-going in Glasgow (United Kingdom), Granada (Spain), and Ireland. The report provides a compendium of circular economy good practices, obstacles and opportunities, analysed through the lens of its 3Ps analytical framework (people, policies and places). It concludes with policy recommendations, a Checklist for Action and a Scoreboard to self-assess the existence and level of implementation of enabling governance conditions to foster the transition towards the circular economy in cities and regions.
In 2004, OECD countries agreed to a ten-year vision for the harmonisation of regulatory approaches for agricultural pesticides (chemical and biological) to facilitate and promote the sharing of work between regulatory authorities. The highlight of this “Vision” is that by 2014, OECD countries will routinely accept dossiers prepared by stakeholders in the OECD format; will routinely exchange "monographs" containing reviews of the data submitted; and will use OECD "monographs" as a basis for independent risk assessments and regulatory decisions for new and existing pesticides. This document describes the benefits that will accrue to regulatory authorities, companies (registrants) and the general public as a result of joint evaluations of dossiers.