Browse by: "2016"

This report presents findings from the 2012 and 2015 OECD surveys on Performance Standards and Related Authorised Label Claims for Microbicides Used in OECD Countries.The primary objective of this questionnaire was to collect information to allow a comparison of the performance standards, authorised label claims and regulations in relation with those performance standards for the microbicide products used in OECD countries.

This report presents findings from the 2010-11 OECD survey on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in the field of private area and public health area. It revealed a lack of harmonisation in risk reduction measures amongst OECD countries. Responding countries suggested activities at the OECD level to progress in biocide risk reduction, focusing on sustainable use. Recommendations included establishing criteria for evaluation, reviewing biocides' roles in a sustainable society, increasing knowledge on resistance development, studying costs and benefits, exploring substitution options, and developing risk indicators.

This report addresses the fundamental challenges that climate change poses to infrastructure owners, who face two major challenges. First, they must ensure continued asset performance under sometimes significantly modified climate conditions that may decrease the present value of their networks or increase maintenance and refurbishment costs. Second, they must build new assets in the context of changing and uncertain climate variables. This creates a risk of over- or under-specification of infrastructure design standards, potentially resulting in non-productive investments or network service degradation. This report investigates strategies that can help transport authorities contain network performance risks inherent in changing patterns of extreme weather.

Plant protection products (PPP) and biocidal products (BP) are designed to be efficacious and unchanged when stored for a period of time following production. This guidance document describes the general storage stability requirements and procedures relied upon when verifying a period of product stability and package integrity for PPP and BPs. The guidance document is not applicable to microbial PPP and BPs. The general storage stability requirements and procedures described in this guidance document are based on existing guidelines and procedures.

The Jordan Clean Energy Investment Policy Review is a country-specific application of the OECD Policy Guidance for Investment in Clean Energy Infrastructure. It aims to help Jordanian policy makers strengthen the enabling conditions for investment in renewable electricity generation in Jordan. The Policy Guidance is a non-prescriptive tool to help governments identify ways to mobilise private sector investment in clean energy infrastructure, especially in renewable electricity generation. The Policy Guidance was jointly developed by the OECD Working Party on Climate, Investment and Development (WPCID) of the Environment Policy Committee (EPOC) and the OECD Investment Committee, jointly with the Global Relations Secretariat (GRS). It benefited from significant inputs of the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The Policy Guidance was annexed to the Communiqué of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors at their meeting on 10-11 October 2013.

This report examines the key design and implementation features that need to be considered to ensure that biodiversity offset programmes are environmentally effective, economically efficient, and distributionally equitable. Biodiversity offsets are being increasingly used in a wide range of sectors as a mechanism to help compensate for the adverse effects caused by development projects in a variety of ecosystems. In this report, insights and lessons learned are drawn from more than 40 case studies from around the world, with an additional 3 in-depth country case studies from the United States, Germany and Mexico.

To ensure that the tests used to address the safety of Manufactured Nanomaterials are consistent and defensible; the OECD launched the Sponsorship Programme for the Testing of Manufactured Nanomaterials (Testing Programme) in November 2007. This Testing Programme verifies the testing methods used on Manufactured Nanomaterials by pooling the expertise of OECD member countries, some non-member countries and other stakeholders to fund the safety testing of specific Manufactured Nanomaterials. The present document summarises the information that was delivered by participating countries and stakeholders until the deadline for the dossier compilation of the TiO2 dossier of the OECD Sponsorship Programme.

A major challenge facing the Republic of Buryatia, subject of the Russian Federation, is how to balance the task of protecting Lake Baikal – a unique water object and ecological system included in the UNESCO list of World Natural Heritage Areas – with the need for dynamic and sustainable socio-economic development of the republic.  This requires streamlining and improving water policy jointly with economic, administrative, information and other policy instruments. The recommendations in this report aim to help achieve this objective. They include the introduction of abstraction charges for irrigation water as a  natural resource; enhancement of state support to the water sector; and improvement of economic instruments for managing risks of water-related hazards (such as compulsory insurance and differentiated land tax rates in flood prone areas). A few innovative instruments are also recommended for pilot testing such as establishing limits for discharges of certain hazardous substances in a pilot area (e.g. Selenga river basin) and progressive development of market for tradable quotas for discharges of the “capped” pollutants; and introducing a charge (tax) on toxic agricultural chemicals (pesticides, herbicides, etc.) and synthetic detergents so that to create incentives for the reduction of diffuse water pollution.

The Urban Green Growth in Dynamic Asia project explores how to promote green growth in cities in Asia, examining policies and governance practices that encourage environmental sustainability and competitiveness in a rapidly expanding economy. This synthesis report presents the results of case studies along with practical policy recommendations, reflecting the local contexts of Southeast Asia. While Southeast Asian cities are affected by a range of economic, infrastructure, environmental and social challenges, ongoing rapid development offers opportunities to shift towards greener growth models. The concept of urban green growth can be a powerful vector of sustainable development, by emphasising the existence and potential of co-benefits between economic and environmental performance.

This document describes practical and cost-effective monitoring approaches for using metal impurities in carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as indicators of their presence in the workplace. Its goal is to supplement the “toolbox” of existing methods available for risk assessment and exposure mitigation. Advice on sampling techniques and off-line analysis will assist the occupational hygienist to identify situations where metal impurities in CNTs can be applied as a sensitive but qualitative indicator of the presence of process-related releases of CNTs in the workplace. Limitations are identified which place the CNT tracer strategy in the category of a sensitive but qualitative (semi-quantitative) indicator of the presence of process-related releases of CNTs in the workplace. Qualitative evidence provided by monitoring CNT tracers may be useful to evaluate the effectiveness of clean-up and engineering control measures, and to assist in distinguishing CNTs from non-CNT sources of elemental carbon (such as diesel soot).

This document presents a case study on exposure assessment of nano-gold(AuNP), which has been conducted in a pilot-scale facility to perform an exposure assessment during the synthesis of AuNPs. The main objective of this project is to identify tasks that may result in emissions of AuNPs into the environment during their synthesis.

The outcome of COP21 urged developed countries to scale up their level of financial support, over and above their initial finance pledges, with a concrete roadmap to achieve their USD 100 billion a year commitment by 2020. This note provides analytical support to country preparation of such a roadmap, assessing the scale of future climate finance as well as identifying and discussing some key uncertainties. It sets out the resulting projections for climate finance in 2020 along with the underlying assumptions and methodologies.

Chemical Leasing (ChL) is a service-oriented business model that aligns the interests of the chemical supplier with those of the chemical user by compensating the service of the chemical rather than the chemical volume sold and used. This creates a strategic partnership between the two parties, in which the common goal is the reduction of chemical consumption, thus achieving enhanced performances, chemical handling and waste management and, therefore, economic and environmental benefits. Due to the economic and environmental benefits that ChL can achieve, since the early 2000s UNIDO and some European countries, notably, Austria, Germany and Switzerland, have been promoting the business model as a means to achieve sustainability in the chemical industry. This study presents a review of the literature on the economic features of the ChL and of similar business models, focusing on the drivers and barriers and comparing their functioning to traditional contracts.

This document provides guidance for policy makers on both developing new or selecting existing indicators of risk to human health and the environment from the use of crop protection products (i.e., pesticides). These pesticide risk indicators are tools, based on modelling or actual data from monitoring studies or surveys, which predict the potential risk from the use of pesticides, and help policy makers assess the sustainability of pesticide use.

To tackle climate change, CO2 emissions need to be cut. Pricing carbon is one of the most effective and lowest-cost ways of inducing such cuts. This report presents the first full analysis of the use of carbon pricing on energy in 41 OECD and G20 economies, covering 80% of global energy use and of CO2 emissions. The analysis takes a comprehensive view of carbon prices, including specific taxes on energy use, carbon taxes and tradable emission permit prices. It shows the entire distribution of effective carbon rates by country and the composition of effective carbon rates by six economic sectors within each country. Carbon prices are seen to be often very low, but some countries price significant shares of their carbon emissions. The ‘carbon pricing gap’, a synthetic indicator showing the extent to which effective carbon rates fall short of pricing emissions at EUR 30 per tonne, the low-end estimate of the cost of carbon used in this study, sheds light on potential ways of strengthening carbon pricing.

This report updates the 2001 Guidance Manual for Governments on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which provided a broad overview of the key issues, general considerations, and the potential benefits and costs associated with producer responsibility for managing the waste generated by their products put on the market. Since then, EPR policies to help improve recycling and reduce landfilling have been widely adopted in most OECD countries; product coverage has been expanded in key sectors such as packaging, electronics, batteries and vehicles; and EPR schemes are spreading in emerging economies in Asia, Africa and South America, making it relevant to address the differing policy contexts in developing countries.
 
In light of all of the changes in the broader global context, this updated review of the guidelines looks at some of the new design and implementation challenges and opportunities of EPR policies, takes into account recent efforts undertaken by governments to better assess the cost and environmental effectiveness of EPR and its overall impact on the market, and addresses some of the specific issues in emerging market economies.

This document introduces a life cycle approach to the validation and operation of computerised systems. It emphasises risk assessment as the central element of a scalable, economic and effective validation process with a focus on data integrity. The intention of this document is to provide guidance that will allow test facilities to develop an adequate strategy for the validation and operation of any type of computerised system, regardless of its complexity, in a GLP environment.