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.
The Benefits of Climate Change Policies provides an overview of the state-of-the-art in assessment of the global benefits of climate change policies. It includes recent analyses and viewpoints from well-known scientists and policy analysts, including John Callaway (UNEP Risoe Centre), Henry Jacoby (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Sam Hitz and Joel Smith (Stratus Consulting), Roger Jones (CSIRO, Australia), Michele Pittini and Mujaba Rahman (UK government), John Schellnhuber (and other co-authors from Tyndall Centre, UK), Stephen Schneider (Stanford University), and Tom Wigley (NCAR).
This study takes an in-depth look at the arable crops sector in OECD countries and draws some conclusions about the impacts of agricultural support policies, trade liberalisation, agri-environmental payments, and agri-ennvironmental regulations. It contains economic and structural data, agri-environmental indicators for the arable crops sector, and analysis of the policy measures supporting arable crops farming and addressing environmental issues both at the aggregate country level and regional levels. This is the third in a series of in-depth studies being undertaken by the OECD to investigate the linkages between agriculture, trade and the environment. The first study on the pig sector was published in 2003, and the second study on the dairy sector was published in 2004.
The purpose of this document is to facilitate the proper application and interpretation of the GLP Principles for the organisation and management of in vitro studies, and to provide guidance for the appropriate application of the GLP Principles to in vitro studies, both for test facilities (management, QA, study director and personnel), and for national GLP compliance monitoring authorities. This Advisory Document intends to provide such additional interpretation of the Principles and guidance for their application to in vitro studies carried out for regulatory purposes. It is organised in such a way as to provide easy reference to the GLP Principles by following the sequence of the different parts of these GLP Principles.
The Climate Action Monitor, part of the International Programme for Action of Climate (IPAC), provides a diagnostic policy framework for assessing country progress towards climate objectives. Its goal is to provide a digest of progress towards, and alignment with, Paris Agreement goals to support countries in making better-informed decisions and allow stakeholders to measure improvements more accurately. Alongside the IPAC Dashboard, it complements and supports the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement monitoring frameworks by: 1) reviewing key trends and developments and highlighting areas for further analysis and policy action; 2) promoting greater harmonisation of key indicators; 3) showcasing examples of good climate mitigation and adaptation practices and results; and 4) strengthening transparency over climate policies.
This document describes the state of knowledge of the adverse outcome pathway (AOP) for skin sensitisation initiated by covalent binding to proteins, assesses the weight-of-evidence supporting the AOP, identifies the key events, and identifies databases containing test results related to those key events. AOPs can be incorporated into chemical categories-based assessments or integrated approaches for testing and assessment.
This OECD Emission Scenario Document (ESD) is intended to provide information on the sources, use patterns and release pathways of chemicals used in textile finishing industry to assist in the estimation of releases of chemicals to the environment.
Crop field trials are conducted to determine the magnitude of the pesticide residue in or on raw agricultural commodities, including feed items, and should be designed to reflect pesticide use patterns that lead to the highest possible residues.
Objectives of crop field trials are to: (1) quantify the expected range of residue(s) in crop commodities following treatment according to the proposed or established good agricultural practice; (2) determine, when appropriate, the rate of decline of the residue(s) of plant protection product(s) on commodities of interest; (3) determine residue values such as the “Supervised Trial Median Residue” and “Highest Residue” for conducting dietary risk assessment; and (4) derive maximum residue limits (MRLs). This Test Guideline requires one sample from treated plots at each sampling interval for crops that have eight or more crop field trials.
The test substance(s) should be stored under appropriate conditions for the study duration and applied soon after preparation or mixing. Test substance applications should not be made in strong wind, during rain or when rainfall is expected shortly after application. For all applications, the application rate should be expressed in terms of amount of product and/or active ingredient per unit area. At the end of each crop field trial, the (stored) samples are analysed for residue level (expressed for example in mg/kg).
This Test Guideline describes how to plan and carry out processing studies, i.e. determine residue levels in primary processed commodities following pesticide application on raw agriculture commodities (RAC) under conditions likely to lead to maximum residues. It provides the distribution of residues (active ingredient, and/or metabolites, degradation products), and preferential accumulation in various processed products resulting from the processing of a commodity.
Used RACs (of plant origin and animal origin) should contain field-treated quantifiable residues, at sufficient levels so that concentration/dilution factors for the various consumed products and non-consumed intermediates can be determined. Pesticides residues to be measured are determined by the residue definition based on studies on the nature of the residue in processing and/or in plant and livestock. For each field test site (at least two independent) the processing factor (Pf) is calculated as the ratio between the residue level in the processed commodity and in the RAC or the commodity to be processed. If a given commodity has two or more significantly different commercial procedures, two trials for each procedure are necessary. Spiked samples should be run concurrently with those from the processing study to ensure the method validity.
This Test Guideline describes a method conducted as model studies to predict the degradation pathway of the active ingredient under hydrolytic conditions, to identify the degradation products, and to determine the relative amount of degradation products.
Three representative hydrolysis conditions should be investigated. Radiolabelled active test substance are used to elucidate the possible degradation pathway and for quantitation of the extent of degradation. The use of tritium (3H) as a label is not permitted due to the possibility of hydrogen exchange with the water. The proposed value for the concentration of a water soluble active ingredient in the studies required here is 1.0 mg/L. Samples may be analysed directly by chromatography or may be extracted with a series of solvents or solvent mixtures with various polarities and other characteristics depending on the nature of the expected residues. The characterisation and identification of extractable residues is made. Ideally samples should be stored at/or below -18°C. The report should include the routes of degradation observed, the degradation pathway, the composition of total radioactive residues, the limit of quantification for radioactivity determination and chromatographic separation.
The residues in Livestock studies are conducted in order to quantify levels of residues in meat, milk, eggs and edible meat by-products following the use of a pesticide product. The situations to which such studies apply include application of a pesticide to raw agricultural commodities (RACs), and the feeding by livestock; pesticides that may be directly applied to livestock; and pesticides that are used in livestock premises.
The primary purposes of the Residues in Livestock study are to provide: the basis for establishing maximum residue limits (MRLs) and for conducting dietary intake assessments for consumer safety. Separate feeding studies should be conducted for a ruminant (lactating dairy cows) and poultry (egg-laying hens). The test substance(s) should be applied daily (during at least 28 days) preferably by capsule. A Residues in Livestock study will normally comprise 3 different dose levels, 1X, 3X and 10X. Three animals per dose group (and one for the control) should be used for ruminants. For hens 9-10 animals per dose group (and 3 to 4 animal for control per study) should be used. The study report should include: daily feed consumption, bodyweights measurement, milk or egg production and analyse (after and before dosing), detailed observations (health problems…) and tissues analyse.
This Test Guideline describes a method to determine the amount of pesticide residues which may be accumulated into rotational crops via soil uptake following realistic agricultural practices. These data may be used to establish crop rotation restrictions, for dietary risk assessment and to determine whether maximum residue limits will be needed in rotational crops.
Three representative crops should be tested to determine the uptake of residues: these are root and tuber vegetables; leafy vegetables; and small grains. The test uses three rotational intervals. The rotated crops should be planted after the minimum rotational interval that could be expected as part of agricultural practice: 7-30 days, and 270-365 days for crops rotated the following year. The limited field trials should be conducted at two diverse geographical regions. The pesticide should be applied to primary crop or bare soil by the method specified on the pesticide label or proposed label at the maximum label rate and the maximum number of applications. Residues should be analyzed within 30 days of harvesting (and should be stored frozen prior to analysis).