Browse by: "2020"
Index
Title Index
Year Index
This report provides a broad and evidence-based analytical perspective of the debate around the possible role of a Border Carbon Adjustment (BCA) to deal with climate change. The new context of divergent climate ambition has led to a resurgence of interest in BCAs. The paper provides an overview of different policy instruments that can limit carbon leakage, with a particular focus on the BCA option, and offers a technical review of the literature and of the legal specificities around BCA as well as of alternative instruments. The report also analyses the issue of fragmented climate policies in the broader perspective of the trade-climate nexus and discusses how other policy measures – especially those related to trade – can help support climate objectives (for example, reducing the existing barriers to trade in environmental goods, and removing environmentally harmful and trade distortive subsidies).
This report aims to contribute to the discussion on a ‘Safe(r) Innovation Approach’ for more sustainable nanomaterials and nano-enabled products. The document presents common working descriptions to ensure a common understanding of concepts such as Safe(r) Innovation Approach and its elements, Safe(r)-by-Design and Regulatory Preparedness. The document compiles existing risk assessment tools, frameworks and initiatives developed for Safe(r)-by-Design. The inventory of risk assessment tools and frameworks should contribute to assisting industry in implementing a 'Safe(r) Innovation Approach' for NMs and nano-enabled products. This includes a review of lessons learned from applying existing Safe(r)-by-Design concepts and tools and methods applied in hazard, exposure and risk assessment and management along the innovation value chain. Additionally, it assesses the applicability of Safe(r)-by-Design through case studies and existing initiatives, analysing constraints and limitations. The report also compiles information on regulatory initiatives related to the review of innovative approaches and technologies. Finally, it gathers information on regulatory initiatives related to innovative approaches and assesses their integration into current legislation or guidance.
This Guidance Document provides guidance and practical advice for applicants on the requirements for flammability testing of biocides and agricultural pesticides/plant protection products in various OECD jurisdictions. Though many of the available methods are common they can differ in small but important ways. Thus a summary of parameters can help an applicant ensure their data set is viable in all OECD countries, thereby saving resources for both the applicant and the receiving government.
This report presents the results of collaboration on improving water security in Belarus, between the beneficiary country, the OECD and its partners implementing the EU-funded European Union Water Initiative Plus project. It provides an overview of the composition and distribution of the country’s water resources, including the particular challenges facing different regions (oblasts), and lays out the policy responses that Belarus has taken and planned to progress its overarching policy objective of ensuring water security within the framework of the future national Water Strategy in the Context of Climate Change for the Period until 2030. The report also provides an assessment of potential opportunities to boost water security in Belarus by supporting the country’s ongoing water policy reform agenda.
Настоящий отчет представляет результаты сотрудничества в области повышения водной безопасности Республики Беларусь с ОЭСР и ее партнерами по реализации финансируемого Европейским союзом проекта Водная инициатива Европейского союза плюс для стран Восточного партнерства. Он содержит обзор наличия и распределения водных ресурсов в стране, а также связанных с ними особых вызовов, стоящих перед различными областями Беларуси, и рассматривает запланированные меры политики для достижения всеобъемлющих целей водной политики Беларуси по обеспечению водной безопасности в рамках будущей национальной "Водной Стратегии Республики Беларусь на период до 2030 года, в условиях изменения климата". Настоящий отчет также включает в себя оценку возможностей повышения водной безопасности Беларуси посредством оказания поддержки программе водохозяйственных реформ, осуществляемой в стране.
This joint report by the International Energy Agency and the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency is the ninth in a series of studies on electricity generating costs. As countries work towards ensuring an electricity supply that is reliable, affordable and increasingly low carbon, it is crucial that policymakers, modellers and experts have at their disposal reliable information on the cost of generation. This report includes cost data on power generation from natural gas, coal, nuclear, and a broad range of renewable technologies. For the first time, information on the costs of storage technologies, the long-term operation of nuclear power plants and fuel cells is also included. The detailed plant-level cost data for 243 power plants in 24 countries, both OECD and non-OECD, is based on the contributions of participating governments and has been treated according to a common methodology in order to provide transparent and comparable results.
Low-carbon electricity systems are characterised by increasingly complex interactions of different technologies with different functions in order to ensure reliable supply at all times. The 2020 edition of Projected Costs of Generating Electricity thus puts into context the plain metric for plant-level cost, the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE). System effects and system costs are identified with the help of the broader value-adjusted LCOE, or VALCOE metric. Extensive sensitivity analyses and five essays treating broader issues that are crucial in electricity markets round out the complementary information required to make informed decisions. A key insight is the importance of the role the electricity sector plays in decarbonising the wider energy sector through electrification and sector coupling.
The key insight of the 2020 edition of Projected Costs of Generating Electricity is that the levelised costs of electricity generation of low-carbon generation technologies are falling and are increasingly below the costs of conventional fossil fuel generation. Renewable energy costs have continued to decrease in recent years and their costs are now competitive, in LCOE terms, with dispatchable fossil fuel-based electricity generation in many countries. The cost of electricity from new nuclear power plants remains stable, yet electricity from the long-term operation of nuclear power plants constitutes the least cost option for low-carbon generation. At the assumed carbon price of USD 30 per tonne of CO2 and pending a breakthrough in carbon capture and storage, coal-fired power generation is slipping out of the competitive range. The cost of gas-fired power generation has decreased due to lower gas prices and confirms the latter’s role in the transition. Readers will find a wealth of details and analysis, supported by over 100 figures and tables, that establish the continuing value of the Projected Costs of Generating Electricity as an indispensable tool for decision-makers, researchers and experts interested in identifying and comparing the costs of different generating options in today’s electricity sector.
Non-exhaust emissions of particulate matter constitute a little-known but rising share of emissions from road traffic and have significant negative impacts on public health. This report synthesizes the current state of knowledge about the nature, causes, and consequences of non-exhaust particulate emissions. It also projects how particulate matter emissions from non-exhaust sources may evolve in future years and reflects on policy instrument mixes that can address this largely ignored environmental issue.
Consumption Tax Trends provides information on Value Added Taxes/Goods and Services Taxes (VAT/GST) and excise duty rates in OECD member countries. It also contains information about international aspects of VAT/GST developments and the efficiency of this tax. It describes a range of other consumption taxation provisions on tobacco, alcoholic beverages, motor vehicles and aviation fuels.
This report offers guidance on how to prepare regions and cities for the transition towards a climate-neutral and circular economy by 2050 and is directed to all policymakers seeking to identify and implement concrete and ambitious transition pathways. It describes how cities, regions, and rural areas can manage the transition in a range of policy domains, including energy supply, conversion, and use, the transformation of mobility systems, and land use practices. It takes stock of discussions between academic and policy experts emanating from a series of high-level expert workshops organised in 2019 by the OECD and the European Commission. Bringing together frontier thinking and practical examples regarding the transition to a climate-neutral economy, the transition to a circular economy, the transition in cities, the transition in rural areas, and financing and scale-up of transition action, this report identifies cross-cutting lessons to support urban, regional, and rural decision makers in managing trade-offs and in promoting, facilitating and enabling environmental and energy transitions.
Le Luxembourg a progressé dans le découplage des pressions environnementales de la croissance économique, dans l’épuration des eaux usées et dans la gestion des déchets et des matières. Il s’est aussi placé comme un centre international de la finance verte. Mais il demeure l'une des économies à plus haute intensité carbone et matière de l'OCDE. Le pays est un carrefour pour le trafic de marchandises et attire quotidiennement des milliers de navetteurs transfrontaliers. Cela exacerbe les émissions de gaz à effet de serre, la pollution de l’air et la congestion routière. L'étalement urbain, la fragmentation des paysages et l'agriculture exercent de fortes pressions sur la biodiversité.
Pour orienter son économie vers un modèle plus vert, le Luxembourg s’est fixé des objectifs environnementaux ambitieux. Verdir la fiscalité, donner des signaux de prix plus forts, encourager l’éco-innovation et l’économie circulaire, intégrer la biodiversité dans toutes les politiques, et investir dans des infrastructures bas-carbone et la mobilité durable, devraient être des priorités.
Ce rapport est le troisième Examen environnemental du Luxembourg. Il évalue les performances en matière de croissance verte et de développement durable, avec des chapitres spéciaux sur deux enjeux majeurs : la qualité de l’air et la mobilité, et la biodiversité.
Luxembourg has made progress in decoupling environmental pressures from economic growth, treating wastewater and managing waste and materials. It has also positioned itself as an international centre for green finance. Yet, it remains one of the most carbon- and material-intensive economies in the OECD. The country is a crossroads for freight traffic and attracts thousands of daily cross-border commuters. This exacerbates greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and road congestion. Urban sprawl, landscape fragmentation and agriculture exert strong pressures on biodiversity.
To steer its economy towards a greener model, Luxembourg has set ambitious environmental objectives. Greening taxation, providing stronger price signals, promoting eco-innovation and the circular economy, mainstreaming biodiversity into all policies, and investing in low-carbon infrastructure and sustainable mobility, should be priorities.
This is the third Environmental Performance Review of Luxembourg. It evaluates progress towards green growth and sustainable development, with special chapters focusing on two major issues: air quality and mobility, and biodiversity.
This report is an update with 2018 figures to the previous publication Climate Finance Provided and Mobilised by Developed Countries in 2013-17. It provides insights on the evolution of the following four components of climate finance over the period of 2013-2018: bilateral public climate finance, multilateral climate finance (attributed to developed countries), climate-related officially supported export credits, and private finance mobilised by developed countries public finance interventions. Building on past work, the report deepens the analysis by providing not only aggregate figures but also a further breakdown in terms of recipients and characteristics of climate finance commitments.
В докладе рассматриваются основные результаты проекта, отвечающего на вопрос: как приток финансовых средств сможет активизировать развитие экологически чистого общественного транспорта и тем самым сократить выбросы в атмосферу загрязняющих веществ и парниковых газов (ПГ) в крупных городах Кыргызстана, предоставив тем самым анализ для разработки Программы зеленых государственных инвестиций в этой отрасли.
Инвестиции в данную отрасль открывают Кыргызстану возможность решить ключевые задачи своей экологической и климатической политики в рамках перехода страны на «зеленый» экономический путь развития.
Помимо этого, инвестиционная программа направлена на поддержку процесса модернизации городского общественного транспорта в стране и на стимулирование внутреннего рынка к переходу на современные автобусы, в частности, работающие на экологически чистых видах топлива. Планируется, что Программа будет осуществлена в два этапа: первый будет охватывать города Бишкек и Ош, а второй ‑ районы за пределами пилотных городов (т.е. городские пригороды, а также междугородний транспорт). Ожидается, что данные инвестиции принесут значительные экологические, общественные и социально‑экономические выгоды.
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.
The Road Safety Annual Report 2020 provides an overview of road safety performance for the 42 countries participating in the International Transport Forum’s permanent working group on road safety, known as the IRTAD Group. Based on the latest data, the report describes recent road safety developments in these countries and compares their performance against the main road safety indicators.
Das BIP ist zwar der bekannteste und gebräuchlichste Wirtschaftsindikator, es kann aber nicht über alle relevanten Aspekte der wirtschaftlichen Leistung und des sozialen Fortschritts Auskunft geben. Dieser Band zeigt, dass das BIP als alleiniger Maßstab für die wirtschaftliche Leistung irreführend ist: Es ist der Fokussierung auf diese Kennzahl zuzuschreiben, dass die Politikverantwortlichen die Krise von 2008 nicht kommen sahen und ihre wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Folgen nicht richtig beurteilten. Die Co-Vorsitzenden der der OECD angegliederten Hochrangigen Sachverständigengruppe zur Messung von wirtschaftlicher Leistung und sozialem Fortschritt – Joseph E. Stiglitz, Jean-Paul Fitoussi und Martine Durand – argumentieren, dass wir Indikatoren-Dashboards entwickeln müssen, die abbilden, was wirklich zählt: Wer vom Wachstum profitiert, ob dieses Wachstum ökologisch nachhaltig ist, wie die Menschen ihr Leben empfinden und welche Faktoren für den Erfolg eines Menschen oder eines Landes ausschlaggebend sind. Diese Dashboards werden den Politikverantwortlichen helfen, die richtigen Entscheidungen für die Bevölkerung, das Land und die Welt zu treffen. Die Publikation beleuchtet darüber hinaus auch die Fortschritte, die in den letzten zehn Jahren im Hinblick auf die Erhebung von Daten zu Wohlstand und Lebensqualität und ihre Berücksichtigung bei der Politikgestaltung erzielt wurden. In einem Begleitband – For Good Measure: Advancing Research on Well-being Metrics Beyond GDP – präsentieren einige Mitglieder der Hochrangigen Sachverständigengruppe gemeinsam mit Co-Autoren, bei denen es sich um führende Wirtschaftswissenschaftler, Politikwissenschaftler, Psychologen und Statistiker handelt, ihre neuesten Forschungsergebnisse in ausgewählten Teilbereichen der umfassenden Agenda zur Definition und Messung von Wohlstand.
This OECD Emission Scenario Document (ESD) is intended to provide information on the sources, use patterns, and potential release pathways of additive chemicals used in automotive finished lubricants. The document presents standard approaches for estimating the environmental releases of and occupational exposures to chemical additives used in automotive finished lubricants.
A number of countries have created official definitions of sustainable finance as well as more comprehensive classification systems, referred to as sustainable finance taxonomies. This report maps sustainable finance definitions and taxonomies in five jurisdictions: the European Union, People’s Republic of China, Japan, France and the Netherlands. Taxonomies answer a need for greater certainty on the environmental sustainability of different types of investments. When appropriately designed, they can improve market clarity, bring confidence and assurance to investors, and facilitate the measurement and tracking of sustainable finance flows. The report lays out preliminary considerations for good design of taxonomies, which can support policy makers to develop and grow sustainable finance markets to help achieve environmental and sustainable development goals. It also identifies differences among the taxonomies in scope as well as commonalities. These commonalities could provide a basis for creating comparable frameworks that facilitate international investment while also reflecting differing national circumstances.
Building green is not only imperative to achieve global climate and development commitments in this “decade for delivery”, but will also be critical to sustain socio-economic development during the COVID-19 recovery. Private investment in particular is needed to bridge the infrastructure investment gap, given institutional investors’ large pools of long-term capital. After several years of efforts to upscale institutional investment in infrastructure, where does the level of investment stand today? This report provides a first-of-its-kind empirical assessment of investment in infrastructure by institutional investors domiciled in OECD and G20 countries, presenting a snapshot from February 2020. Based on a new detailed view of investment channels, financial instruments, sectoral allocations, regional preferences and trends, the report provides guidance on policy levers and priorities to scale-up institutional investment in green infrastructure.
Greece has undergone extensive reforms to cope with a deep recession over the past decade. It has made progress in decoupling air pollutant emissions from GDP and improving the conservation status of natural habitats. However, the country faces challenges in managing waste and water, and addressing air pollution. It is highly vulnerable to the impact of climate change. The energy mix has shifted towards cleaner fuels, but the economy strongly relies on fossil fuels. Progress towards sustainable development requires effective implementation of ambitious climate mitigation and adaptation policies, strengthening environmental governance and enhancing coherence between environmental and energy, transport, agriculture and tourism policies.
This is the third Environmental Performance Review of Greece. It evaluates progress towards sustainable development and green growth, with special features on climate change mitigation and adaptation, and biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.