Browse by: "2022"

¿Qué retos y oportunidades presenta la transición verde para América Latina y el Caribe? Esta 15ª edición de Perspectivas económicas de América Latina explora las opciones de política que la región tiene para repensar sus modelos productivos, transformar su matriz energética y crear empleos de calidad en el proceso. El informe señala que para que esta transición sea justa, se necesitan mejores sistemas de protección social y un diálogo abierto que ayude a construir nuevos contratos sociales sostenibles. Para impulsar esta ambiciosa agenda, el informe presenta distintas herramientas de financiación, incluidas las finanzas verdes, y aboga por la renovación de las alianzas internacionales.

In spite of progress made to date and the significant long-term ambition announced by many countries, climate policy actions remain insufficient to meet the Paris Agreement objectives. While several international initiatives aim to track and monitor climate policies, there is not yet a “go to” place for a comprehensive inventory of policy actions and best practices worldwide. Such a platform would also ideally serve to compare policies’ effectiveness reflecting the diversity of country circumstances. Progress in this direction would help to promote an ambitious but globally more coherent and better-coordinated approach to emission reductions through a broad range of policies. This report lays out a roadmap for data and analytical work to support this aim, with a view to enhancing global dialogue and building trust on issues spanning climate change mitigation policies and their macro-economic repercussions. Key elements to strengthen the assessment and comparison of countries’ climate change mitigation policies across countries include: broadening and deepening the stocktaking of mitigation policies; extending and agreeing on an operational methodology for estimating the impact of these policies on emissions and on potential metrics to compare them; and assessing the broader economic effects of different climate policies.

The objective of this scoping study is to discuss and assess potential paths to advance towards a stated preference (SP) protocol with the aim of estimating the benefits of improvements in environmental endpoints due to chemical management and regulatory decisions. This scoping study is meant as a starting point for discussions on developing and testing a survey instrument. Particular attention is given to the possible generalisability of a survey, and the capacity for future benefit transfer applications. An emphasis is placed on isolating direct values for environmental endpoints and trying to minimise consideration of human health motivations (which are being valued separately under the OECD Surveys of willingness-to-pay to avoid negative chemicals-related health effects (SWACHE) Project). Several key challenges are discussed, including the identification of widely applicable environmental endpoints that can be linked to human welfare, ecotoxicological models, and policy-levers; the role of scientific uncertainties in estimating ex-ante benefits; and communicating baseline conditions in the face of such uncertainties. Alternative valuation questions are posed and discussed, along with practical steps to consider in advancing towards the development and testing of a SP survey instrument.

The OECD “Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy” (RE-CIRCLE) project provides policy guidance on resource efficiency and the transition to a circular economy. The RE-CIRCLE project is structured around two complementary work packages toward sound evidence-based policy recommendations. It aims to identify and quantify the impact of resource-efficient, circular economy policies to guide a range of stakeholders in OECD member countries and emerging market economies through quantitative and qualitative analysis. The project is embedded in on-going work by the OECD on resource efficiency and the transition to a circular economy. This paper provides policy recommendations stemming from the OECD’s work on the RE-CIRCLE project as well as from some of the major other recent OECD publications that directly relate to the topic.

Government chemicals management frameworks aim to enable the safe use of chemicals and ensure their proper management. The approaches used by governments to manage chemical risks are just one aspect of a larger risk management system with industry as a principal actor. They cover a spectrum of activities varying from a government regulatory response that is command-and-control in nature to policy approaches that aim to incentivise a shift in behaviour. The approaches can be responsive, to an identified existing risk, or proactive/pre-cautionary, aiming to minimise possible future risks. Also, the approaches can be used in combination. This document provides a synthesis of the various risk management approaches and options that are used by OECD member country government chemical regulatory programmes to manage the risk of chemicals. The scope of the document focuses on the management of risks of industrial and consumer chemicals, i.e., chemicals which are not covered by specific legislations such as pesticides or pharmaceuticals. The synthesis can serve as a basis for future discussions of individual risk management approaches, either for particular types of chemicals or regarding particular risk management approaches and facilitate international alignment. It can also promote the identification of areas where governments can additionally support better chemicals management and serve as a resource for countries developing their chemicals management programmes.

Tourism has been hit hard by the depth and duration of the crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Just as the sector was starting to rebound, the economic fallout from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has dealt a fresh blow to recovery prospects. The 2022 edition of OECD Tourism Trends and Policies analyses tourism performance and policy trends to support recovery across 50 OECD countries and partner economies. It examines the key tourism recovery challenges and outlook ahead, and highlights the need for co-ordinated, forward-looking policy approaches to set tourism on a path to a more resilient, sustainable and inclusive future. Evidence on the significance of the tourism economy is presented, with data covering domestic, inbound and outbound tourism, enterprises and employment, and internal tourism consumption. Tourism policy priorities, reforms and developments are analysed and examples of country practices highlighted. Thematic chapters provide insights on building resilience in the tourism ecosystem and promoting a green tourism recovery.

This Guidance Document is intended to provide guidance to industry and regulatory authorities, on regulatory approaches that can be taken for assessment and approval of bacteriophages to be used as plant protection products. Bacteriophages (or phages) are a group of microorganisms that are viruses specifically infective to bacteria, which can be considered a niche use.

This occupational biomonitoring guidance document was elaborated in a joint activity including more than 40 institutes and organisations in collaboration with the OECD.The guidance document presents current approaches used to derive biomonitoring values and provides globally harmonized recommendations on how-to derive and apply occupational biomonitoring assessment values. The derived healthbased human biomarker assessment values are referred to as Occupational Biomonitoring Levels (OBLs). OBLs are suitable for the use in exposure assessment and screening a level of health-risk and finally, workplace risk management. Moreover, we strengthen the option of deriving Provisional Occupational Biomonitoring Levels (POBLs) for chemical substances with limited human toxicity data availability, which can be used for identifying and managing possible occupational health-risks.

This guidance provides recommendations for the design and execution of laboratory studies to evaluate the performance of biocidal products in any formulation such as a liquid, aerosol, fog, or impregnated fabric intended to repel, attract, and/or kill bed bugs (Cimex lectularius). It does not apply to repellent products applied to human skin. The guidance is based upon the American Laboratory Product Performance Testing Methods for Bed Bug Pesticide Products (US EPA 2017, OCSPP 810.3900) and incorporates information from laboratory efficacy testing standards for biocidal products against bed bugs in the framework of the German Infectious Diseases Protection Act (18, 46). Investigators should ensure research is conducted in compliance with any applicable laws or regulations, which are independent of and additional to those cited in this guidance

This guidance provides recommendations for the design and execution of simulated-use studies to evaluate the efficacy of baits (claim “nest kill”) against tropical ants. Furthermore, this guidance deals with laboratory and simulated-use testing of tropical ant repellents (e.g. claim “reduction or prevention of invading ants in houses or sensitive areas”). The recommendations in this document refer to products for control in indoor environments.

The consequences of climate change in developing countries are worsening fast: many ecosystems will shortly reach points of irreversible damage, and socio-economic costs will continue to rise. To alleviate the future impacts on populations and economies, policy makers are looking for the spaces where they can make the greatest difference. This report argues that intermediary cities in developing countries are such spaces. Indeed, in the context of fast population growth and urbanisation, these small and medium-sized cities silently play an essential role in the rapid transformation of human settlements, not least by supporting the massive flows of population, goods and services between rural and metropolitan areas. Most of those intermediary cities are still growing: now is therefore the time to influence their dynamics, and thereby the entire design of urbanisation in those regions, in ways that limit the exposure of urban dwellers to climate shocks and avoid carbon lock-in. To that end, based on fresh evidence and policy analysis on the challenges faced by these agglomerations in the context of climate change, the report makes the case for new development approaches to avoid the unsustainable paths followed by too many cities in the recent past.

How can fossil fuel producers and mineral-rich developing countries design realistic, just and cost-effective low-carbon transition pathways? Taking into account the heterogeneity of low-carbon trajectories, the Equitable Framework and Finance for Extractive-based Countries in Transition (EFFECT) provides options for policy makers, industry and finance institutions in search of the answers. The report aims to help them seize the transformational opportunities linked to sustainable, low-carbon growth. It identifies ways of mitigating the transition’s impacts on fossil fuel industries, workers and poor households, and of preventing the risks of high-carbon lock-in and stranded assets. Recognising the shared responsibility of consuming and producing countries in reducing fossil fuel production and use, EFFECT advocates for transformative partnerships for technology transfer, green finance and capacity building. Ultimately, it supports an equitable sharing of the transition’s benefits and costs, both across and within countries.

This report provides an overview of existing scientific and technical information on side-chain fluorinated polymers (SCFPs), focusing on their identities and life cycle, and with a particular goal to map the existing landscape and highlight critical knowledge and data gaps. It focuses on the life cycle of SCFPs, including production and use, presence of other PFASs in the commercial formulations, degradation of SCFPs during use and end-of-life treatment, and environmental releases of SCFPs and other PFASs present in the commercial formulations. The report comes with a separate Annex comprising five spreadsheets providing information on: substances identities, use information, PFASimpurity studies, degradation studies and SCFP release.

OECD Regions and Cities at a Glance presents indicators on individual regions and cities since the turn of the new millennium. It provides a comprehensive picture of past successes and likely challenges that regions and cities in OECD members and partner countries will face in their efforts to build stronger, more sustainable and more resilient economies. By relying on a combination of traditional and more innovative data sources, OECD Regions and Cities at a Glance describes the evolving nature of spatial disparities within countries from a multidimensional perspective. New topics covered by this edition include the economic impact of recent shocks, such as the pandemic and the energy crisis, housing affordability, climate change and digitalisation.

Coal and its emissions are a critical issue as the world contends with both the global energy crisis and the climate crisis. This report presents pragmatic, real-world guidance on how policymakers can achieve a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from coal without harming economies or energy security, outlining measures to finance energy transitions and address their social and employment aspects. It also explores the options for the power sector and other parts of the economy where coal plays a notable role. It examines a range of policy and technology areas, including the potential for carbon capture, utilisation and storage. And it addresses investment and financing needs, taking into account the importance of ensuring reliable and affordable energy supplies and of tackling the social consequences of change.