Browse by: "2023"

Assurance schemes (certifications and labels) are widespread in the agri-food sector. This paper reviews the landscape of existing schemes, and the evidence on whether labels change consumer behaviour, and whether assurance schemes achieve positive change on the farm. The impact of existing labels on shopping behaviours appears limited: even for well-established schemes, market shares remain low, as factors such as taste, health, or price appear to dominate consumer decisions. Regarding farm-level effects, not all crops, standards, and geographies have been equally well studied, and many studies find no effect; but when an effect is found, it is usually positive. The paper identifies actions to improve the effectiveness and inclusiveness of existing and new assurance schemes, and also highlights the new trend of labels which communicate environmental impacts, rather than conformity with process or production requirements.

Assessing health system performance over time or across countries often means comparing populations with very different characteristics, including age structure. The share of the population aged 65 years and over ranges from less than 1 in 10 in some of the Latin American countries of the OECD to almost 3 in 10 in Japan. At the same time, populations are aging rapidly - on average across the OECD, there are 20% more people over 65 since 2015. Since risk of illness and ill-health generally increases with age, a population with an older demographic structure can expect higher mortality rates, greater incidence and prevalence of certain diseases, and thus higher demands for healthcare and, by consequence, higher spending on health. This working paper argues that the level of health spending depends not only on the size of the population (among other factors), but also on the demographic structure of the population. The paper reviews the international literature on age-adjusting health spending, and examines three methods of age-adjustment to report and compare health expenditure data between OECD countries and over time.

This report provides an overview of the policies and procedures for addressing child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) material across the global top-50 online content-sharing services. It finds that only 10 of the 50 services define CSEA with sufficient detail to understand what is prohibited on their services, and only 20 of the services issue a transparency report on CSEA. Even among those services, there are significant variations in what behaviour is captured in their definitions, and the metrics, methodology and frequency of transparency reports differ across platforms. While good practices exist, the report reveals a fragmented response to this complex and evolving problem, which limits comparability and makes it challenging to conduct a thorough assessment of the overall impact of platforms’ efforts to combat CSEA.

Using panel data for Indonesia, Malawi, Peru and South Africa, this paper investigates the relationship between transitions to formal employment and workers’ labour income. It shows that transiting from informal to formal employment increases the probability of improving workers’ labour income in both absolute and relative terms. However, income gains from formalisation do not accrue to all workers equally. Switching to formal employment has the greatest potential to improve the labour income of the richest workers. The chances of improving the labour income of the poorest workers through formalisation are slim. Transitions between formal and informal employment affect income gains and losses differently for men and women, older and younger workers, and workers with different levels of schooling. The effects of labour market transitions on income changes are considerably greater in magnitude than other life events such as a births, separation, or death of a partner or spouse.

A changing climate is threatening livelihoods and economic activity in Greece and the world. Transitioning to a green economy – mitigating the causes of climate change and adapting to its effects, while sustaining activity and improving well-being – is among the greatest policy challenges of the coming decades. In Greece, legacies of high emission intensity, limited fiscal space and scarce private financing amplify the challenge. Greening Greece’s energy system is at the core of this transition. This entails swiftly developing its large potential for renewable energies and adapting energy consuming sectors. A well-chosen mix of policies – including carbon pricing, public infrastructure investments, and gradually tightening regulations on minimum energy efficiency standards, while providing financial support and protecting vulnerable households – would minimise the cost of this transition. Developing insurance coverage can better protect households and firms from damages resulting from a warming climate, while limiting fiscal exposure. Engaging all stakeholders and supporting those affected by the transition will help build the consensus for implementing these policies into the long-term.

This report assesses the potential of transit-oriented development (TOD) to improve accessibility in three Southeast Asian cities: Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Manila. It outlines the challenges of applying TOD practices in developing countries and presents three case studies of successful implementation of TOD, which capture the various forms that TOD can take.

Governments are increasingly utilising research and innovation (R&I) policy to foster economic and societal change. Yet, the empirical correlation between these policies and socio-technical transformations remains under-explored. The report investigates this relationship by comparing the Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRPs) of Austria, Finland and Sweden, initiated under the NextGenerationEU framework post Covid-19. The report finds significant disparities in the content, process and transformative value of the RRPs among these countries. The differences in the content of the national RRPs, and the ability and willingness to seize the opportunity presented by the RRPs to drive transformation, are explained by existing national policy contexts and frameworks. Surprisingly, the role of R&I policy in the RRPs is less important than expected, despite its emphasised importance in literature and political rhetoric. The report further identifies implications for a transformative innovation policy as well as areas for further research.

A new trend is appearing in government budgets: using the budget process to help transform society and achieve results in relation to cross-cutting government goals, referred to in this paper as “transformational agendas”, often seeking to overcome persistent economic, social or environmental issues, which require action from across different policy areas. Transformational budgeting is a holistic approach to budgeting that helps align disparate activities with central goals, or agendas. The paper reviews how budget processes have evolved in modern public finance, with a view to enhancing the efficient and effective use of inputs to deliver results. It presents the emergence of transformational budgeting as a tool to help transform societies in response to new global agendas, such as the SDGs. The paper showcases transformational budgeting in practice, drawing on experiences from Spain.

Plastic products present several environmental, health, social and economic challenges that span from the extraction of raw materials to primary and final plastics production, to their distribution and use, and to the collection and sorting of plastic waste. International trade, which has facilitated the development of plastics supply chains, also comes with a range of challenges, such as a surge in demand for plastics ― notably in packaging ― difficulties to monitor plastics embedded in other products, and an increased risk of plastic waste leaking in countries that have less rigorous environmental regulations. Yet trade can also serve as a vehicle to access foreign pollution control technologies or to foster economies of scale for circular economy practices. Indeed, the implementation of circular economy solutions through trade policies is crucial in addressing plastic pollution. Such policies could include reduced tariffs on environmentally-friendly alternatives to plastic products; trade facilitation measures for reverse supply chains; or technical regulations, standards, labelling schemes, and conformity assessment procedures that promote product designs which will minimise pollution throughout the entire plastic lifecycle.

Affordable and sustainable lithium-ion batteries are key to the development of electric vehicles markets and to the green energy transition. Circular economy solutions for end-of-life batteries can help address primary inputs disruptions, while reducing environmental costs associated with the mining of these inputs or with battery production. Circular value chains would also help address waste and disposal problems as Li-ion batteries reach end of life. These chains are in their infancy, as complex battery designs, material chemistries and insufficient waste stocks hamper their viability, but the projected growth should support profitability. International trade in Li-ion batteries waste will remain essential in markets where domestic waste streams are insufficient to achieve the scale necessary for economically viable recycling, or where inadequate infrastructure imposes reliance on recycling capacities abroad. Promoting circular value chains for Li-ion batteries would require greater clarity on the status of these batteries as waste, consistency of transport and storage safety regulations, trade facilitation and harmonisation of standards for battery design, and regulatory targets for waste collection and recycling rates, coupled with stewardship and take-back schemes.

This report explores how traffic systems and infrastructure can be redesigned and expanded for a broader range of vehicle types, especially “smaller-than-car” or light mobility options. It identifies the potential benefits of making vehicles lighter and diversifying the range of vehicles used for everyday mobility. It also highlights successful policies for encouraging a shift towards urban light mobility in cities. Finally, it presents strategies for implementing frameworks for such policies and highlights measures decision makers should consider as part of their light mobility strategy.

This paper explores food supply chain resilience and its connection to resilience of food systems more broadly. In terms of availability and affordability, food supply chains have been resilient to a wide range of shocks. Trade plays an important risk pooling role in allowing countries to draw on international markets in the face of domestic shocks. Some domestic policies have helped absorb supply chain shocks, for example support to low-income households or the removal of supply chain bottlenecks. Other measures like export restrictions exacerbate instability. The concept of food systems resilience goes further than availability and affordability of food. It includes broader objectives (like livelihoods and environmental sustainability), and must also anticipate a broader range of shocks, as well as the pressures generated by food systems themselves on the environment. Policy makers should therefore take a more complete systems-wide view of resilience.

The Czech economy is very carbon-intensive and has among the highest greenhouse gas emissions per unit of GDP in the OECD. Getting on the path towards net zero will require rapid emission reductions over the coming decades. Coal still makes up close to one third of the energy supply and the government has pledged to phase it out by 2033, which will require a swift expansion in the use of renewable energy sources as well as increased energy efficiency. This can be achieved by adopting a comprehensive policy package that includes widely applied carbon pricing, incentives to raise energy efficiency, spending on renewable energy and cutting red tape hindering green investments. Compensating policies and adjustment support will be essential to mitigate the socio-economic impacts of climate policies and to increase public support. Active labour market policies including higher spending on re-training for the unemployed is key to facilitate the green transition.

Ireland is highly centralised and fast growing, creating co-ordination challenges in terms of delivering key investments and in key policy areas like transport, housing and education. Actors across levels of government recognise a need for a more coordinated approach to the delivery of the National Planning Framework, the principal spatial planning strategy of Project Ireland 2040, which includes also the National Development Plan (public investment).The report has three objectives which ultimately aim to support more balanced regional outcomes in Ireland: i) to clarify the gaps in terms of regional attractiveness across and within Ireland’s regions, including in terms of population and investment attraction; ii) to assess the ability for the National Planning Framework – in its current form – to address these gaps, and iii) to consider what multi-level governance reforms and attractiveness policies can be introduced or scaled to generate more territorially-balanced development.

The Mitigation Work Programme (MWP) was established at COP26 to urgently enhance mitigation ambition and implementation in this critical decade. This paper explores how the MWP could build on and amplify relevant existing efforts, within and outside the UNFCCC, to trigger the rapid scale up of mitigation efforts required to keep the temperature goal of the Paris Agreement within reach. As a multilateral platform backed by the legitimacy and convening power of the UNFCCC, the MWP could help to raise awareness of available tools and solutions, build momentum behind relevant ongoing mitigation-related initiatives without being prescriptive, and deliver more effective, targeted mitigation efforts across all fronts in the near-term. This paper also outlines potential options for the annual decision on the MWP which provides an important opportunity to maintain attention on the need to urgently scale up mitigation efforts and encourages learning-by-doing. The annual MWP decision could be structured around different mutually supportive elements including lessons learned from the MWP’s first year, follow-up from MWP activities and related mitigation commitments at previous COPs, synergies with other UNFCCC processes, and how to complement the global stocktake.

Regulations are an important part of the policy toolkit governments can use to address climate and environmental objectives in agriculture. This report reviews existing literature on the characteristics and assessment of environmental regulations in agriculture. It finds that direct evidence on the outcomes and cost-effectiveness of agri-environmental regulations is generally limited and situation-specific. However, a taxonomy that classifies and organises information on regulations can give a sense of their number, the environmental domains covered, and the scope and depth of their application. This is potentially useful with respect to measuring progress on international commitments for action on climate change mitigation and other analysis.

The first global stocktake (GST1) of collective progress towards the goals of the Paris Agreement will conclude at COP28. How the final stage of GST1 is organised, who is involved and how the final outputs are structured can influence the success of the process. This paper explores how to organise the final component of GST1 and how to design related outputs to be impactful. This paper sets out how to build broad, high-level momentum behind GST1 by structuring activities in 2023 and beyond into four phases of: i) awareness building; ii) socialisation; iii) decision-making; and iv) follow-up. This paper highlights the importance of technical outputs that are fit for purpose and identifies potential options for structuring technical outputs from GST1 to target different actors, including negotiators, policy makers, practitioners, and a broader audience beyond the UNFCCC process. The paper also sets out how to design a package of political outputs from GST1 to include different mutually supportive elements, including negotiated, consultative, and non-negotiated elements, which could play distinct roles and engage different actors. The paper underlines the importance of efforts to monitor how GST1 outputs are taken forward by different actors after COP28. This follow-up could build on existing provisions and establish new processes where needed, to help assess the success of the GST1 exercise and inform subsequent GST cycles.