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This paper was prepared for the OECD-IEA Climate Change Expert Group (formerly called the Annex I Expert Group) for the purpose of providing useful and timely input on specific topics relevant to international negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The papers do not represent the views of the OECD, the IEA, or their member countries, rather they are Secretariat information papers intended to help inform countries as well as the UNFCCC audience on key technical issues in the international climate change negotiations.
The market for Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects is continuing to grow rapidly, with the current portfolio expecting to deliver 2 billion tons of CO2-eq greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions by 2012, equivalent to 17% of Annex I Parties’ base year GHG emissions. In total, governments and companies have earmarked over USD11 billion for CDM funding to 2012. This study analyses the various barriers to CDM market expansion in developing countries, and makes recommendations on how some of them can be removed or reduced. It also examines the distribution of CDM projects amongst regions and sectors.
This OECD work was prompted by the problems caused by the increasing administrative-functional deconcentration within its member countries. The main questions posed were along the lines of: Does departmentalisation (keeping the whole responsibility within a ministry) ensure better control and efficient management of administrative and other public services or, on the contrary, does agencification (in the sense of setting up separate bodies) result in better management and de-politicisation?
This paper, originally presented at the 1981 meeting of the OECD Working Party of Senior Budget Officials, discusses the fundamental purposes of budgeting and explores how off-budget expenditures weaken a government’s financial control. The paper gives insights on many aspects of budgeting that are still relevant today: the transformation of the public sector, the interface with the private sector, the scope and size of government, the role of regulation, the emergence of new organisational forms, and the use of performance objectives and long-term planning.
This paper was prepared for the OECD-IEA Climate Change Expert Group (formerly called the Annex I Expert Group) for the purpose of providing useful and timely input on specific topics relevant to international negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The papers do not represent the views of the OECD, the IEA, or their member countries, rather they are Secretariat information papers intended to help inform countries as well as the UNFCCC audience on key technical issues in the international climate change negotiations.
The feasibility and relevance of measuring human rights, democracy and governance have long been controversial both in the human rights community and in the international statistical family. Within the human rights community, the term “indicator” has had two distinct - and somewhat contrasting - meanings: while for some it designated, in the strict statistical sense, quantitative synthetic information based on robust data (Türk, 1990; Alston, 1998), for many others it designated a qualitative synthetic overview based on extensive sets of questions or “checklists” related to key human rights dimensions (Green, 2001). The latter meaning has deeply marked the approach to human rights assessments that has prevailed within the UN system and among most human rights leading experts during the last decades.
Many OECD governments are facing unprecedented challenges in the markets for bonds and bills, as a result of the explosive growth in their borrowing needs. Amidst an unusually uncertain economic outlook, the gross borrowing needs of OECD governments are expected to reach almost USD 12 trillion in 2009. The key policy issue is how to raise smoothly new funds at low cost, while also managing a rapidly growing debt stock.
For the time being, several factors are offsetting the trend towards higher yields. But the risk is that when the recovery gains traction and risk aversion falls, yields will start to rise. There are already signs that issuance conditions are becoming tougher with reports of weaker demand at some recent government bond auncts. Thus far, these less successful auctions can best be interpreted as "single market events" and not as unambiguous evidence of systemic market absorption problems. Also from this perspective lowering OECD sovereign ratings is not obvious.
The future could become more challenging, given that rising issuance is occurring in tandem with increasing overall debt levels. Also contingent debt is on the rise. In response, sovereign debt managers have begun to plan or implement credible medium-terms exit strategies to avoid future "crowding out" and issuance problems.
Although fund raising strategies have become more flexible and somewhat more opportunistic, OECD debt management framework so as to minimise medium-term borrowing costs. The other key challenge, roll-over risk as a result of the increasing use of short-term instruments, is being addressed by OECD debt managers by rebalancing the profile of their issuance programmes by incorporating more long-term instruments.