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Micro-organisms play a fundamental role in the environment. Yet their role is the result of complex biogeochemical processes by consortia of micro-organisms and the function of individual species is not clear in many cases.
This publication provides an overview of the current situation and relevant developments in environmental microbiology, as well as its potential application, which covers: use of micro-organisms for agriculture, production purposes, bioremediation, and cleaning purpose; environmental applications of microbial symbionts of insects; and environmental risk/safety assessment of the deliberate release of engineered micro-organisms.
The ITF Transport Outlook examines the development of global transport volumes and related CO2 emissions and health impacts through to 2050. It examines factors that can affect supply and demand for transport services and focuses on scenarios illustrating potential upper and lower pathways, discussing their relevance to policy making.
This edition presents an overview of long-run scenarios for the development of global passenger and freight transport volumes, with emphasis on changes in global trade flows and the consequences of rapid urbanisation. It focuses on the characteristics of mobility development in developing countries, from Latin America to Chinese and Indian cities, highlighting the importance of urban mobility policies for the achievement of national and global sustainability goals.
L’Évaluation des activités de coopération au développement est l'un des domaines où l'influence du CAD sur la politique et la pratique peut le plus facilement être observée. Avoir un système d'évaluation qui est bien établi est l'une des conditions requise pour être membre du CAD. Chaque examen par les pairs examine la mise en place et la gestion de la fonction d'évaluation, en utilisant les normes et standards élaborés par le Réseau du CAD sur l'évaluation du développement.
Since 2011 an annual Roundtable on Labor Migration in Asia has been organized by the Asian Development Bank Institute, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and, since 2013, the International Labour Organization. The fourth edition of the event, held in January 2014 and titled “Building Human Capital across Borders,” focused on the critical role of human capital both in bolstering migrants’ employment opportunities in foreign countries and in helping them to reintegrate, with new skills and work experiences, after returning. This report, an outcome of the roundtable, captures key trends in migration in Asia and highlights the challenges of building, and benefi ting from, human capital through the migration process.
Los países de América Latina han implementado importantes reformas de gobierno abierto durante los últimos años. La combinación de los esfuerzos a nivel nacional con el soporte que los países han obtenido por parte de la Alianza para el Gobierno Abierto (AGA) ha sido benéfica para lograr avances cruciales en diversas áreas relacionadas al gobierno abierto. Entre 2013 y 2014, la OCDE - como socio oficial multilateral de la AGA - llevó a cabo un estudio para conocer el estado actual de los estrategias y prácticas de gobierno abierto en la región.
Este reporte presenta los principales hallazgos producto de la implementación de un cuestionario regional enfocado a recabar información sobre estrategias de gobierno abierto, acceso a la información y datos abiertos. En paralelo, el reporte presenta tres casos de estudio que analizan a fondo el estado del gobierno abierto en Costa Rica, Perú y Colombia. El cuestionario y el marco analítico están basados en la experiencia y estándares de la OCDE lo que permitirá a los países latinoamericanos conocer y evaluar la situación de la región en cara a las mejores prácticas internacionales. Se presentan los principales logros y desafíos regionales de una manera comparativa con la finalidad de posicionar las prácticas nacionales e institucionales desde una perspectiva global. Aparte del análisis comparativo de datos e información, el proyecto busca reforzar el marco institucional de los países partícipes del presente estudio con la finalidad de facilitar la implementación de los compromisos adquiridos dentro de la AGA y fortalecer la red regional de oficiales nacionales a cargo de gobierno abierto.
Higher level vocational education and training (VET) programmes are facing rapid change and intensifying challenges. This report on Egypt examines what type of training is needed to meet the needs of a changing economy, how programmes should be funded, how theyshould be linked to academic and university programmes and how employers and unions can be engaged. The country reports in this series look at these and other questions. They form part of Skills beyond School, the OECD policy review of postsecondary vocational education and training.
OECD countries are developing strategies to improve the quality of life of those affected by dementia and to support long-term efforts for a disease-modifying therapy or cure. The OECD jointly hosted an international workshop in Toronto with the Ontario Brain Institute (OBI) and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME), University of Toronto on 14-15 September 2014. The aim of the workshop was to advance international discussion of the opportunities and challenges, as well as successful strategies, for sharing and linking the massive amounts of population-based health and health care data that are routinely collected (broad data) with detailed clinical and biological data (deep data) to create an international resource for research, planning, policy development, and performance improvement. The workshop brought together leading researchers and academics, industry and non-government experts to provide new insights into the opportunities and challenges in making “broad and deep” data a reality – from funding to data standards, to data sharing, to new analytics, to protecting privacy, and to engaging with stakeholders and the public. Government leadership and public-private partnership will be needed to create and sustain big data resources, including financing for data infrastructure and incentives for data sharing.
This annual publication provides major official insurance statistics. The reader will find information on the diverse activities of this industry and on international insurance market trends. The data, which are standardised as far as possible, are broken down under numerous sub-headings, and a series of indicators makes the characteristics of the national markets more readily comprehensible.
Peer reviews are a standard co-operative OECD working tool that offer member countries a framework to compare experiences and examine best practices in a host of areas. The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) has developed a proven methodology for conducting peer reviews in radioactive waste management and nuclear R&D. Using this methodology, the NEA Radioactive Waste Management Committee’s Working Party on Decommissioning and Dismantling (WPDD) developed the present guide as a framework for decommissioning cost reviewers and reviewees to prepare for and conduct international peer reviews of decommissioning cost estimate studies for nuclear facilities. It includes checklists that will help national programmes or relevant organisations to assess and improve decommissioning cost estimate practices in the future. This guide will act as the NEA reference for conducting such international peer reviews.
Nuclear Energy Data is the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency’s annual compilation of statistics and country reports documenting the status of nuclear power in the OECD area. Information provided by member country governments includes statistics on installed generating capacity, total electricity produced by all sources and by nuclear power, nuclear energy policies and fuel cycle developments, as well as projected generating capacity and electricity production to 2035, where available. Total electricity generation at nuclear power plants and the share of electricity production from nuclear power plants remained steady in 2013 despite the progressive shutdown of all reactors in Japan leading up to September and the permanent closure of six reactors in the OECD area. Governments committed to maintaining nuclear power in the energy mix advanced plans for increasing nuclear generating capacity, and progress was made in the development of deep geological repositories for spent nuclear fuel, with Finland expected to have the first such facility in operation in the early 2020s. Further details on these and other developments are provided in the publication’s numerous tables, graphs and country reports.
This publication contains "StatLinks". For each StatLink, the reader will find a URL which leads to the corresponding spreadsheet. These links work in the same way as an Internet link.
Antimicrobial resistance is rapidly becoming a top health problem that could pose a significant challenge to the functioning of healthcare systems and their budget. The findings presented in the report show that there is a strong case for G7 action in the area of AMR.
What are the channels for investment in sustainable energy infrastructure by institutional investors (e.g. pension funds, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds) and what factors influence investment decisions? What key policy levers and risk mitigants can governments use to facilitate these types of investments? What emerging channels (such as green bonds, YieldCos and direct project investment) hold significant promise for scaling up institutional investment?
This report develops a framework that classifies investments according to different types of financing instruments and investment funds, and highlights the risk mitigants and transaction enablers that intermediaries (such as public green investment banks and other public financial institutions) can use to mobilise institutionally held capital. This framework can also be used to identify where investments are or are not flowing, and focus attention on how governments can support the development of potentially promising investment channels and consider policy interventionsthat can make institutional investment in sustainable energy infrastructure more likely.
This publication is the OECD’s annual report highlighting developments in structural policies in OECD countries and the key emerging economies. It identifies structural reform priorities to boost real income for each OECD country and Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa. The analysis also regularly takes stock of reform implementation in all the countries covered. This report also provides internationally comparable indicators that enable countries to assess their economic performance and structural policies in a wide range of areas.
The recent oil market sell‑off, brought on by deep imbalances after years of record-high prices, will likely prove a milestone in the history of oil. However prices eventually evolve, markets may never be the same. This edition of the Medium-Term Oil Market Report sizes up the magnitude of this transformation so far and sketches the oil landscape at the 2020 horizon.
It is not just oil price signals that have changed, but also the market’s responsiveness to them. On the supply side, this Report’s forecast reflects not just lower price assumptions, but also the high price-sensitivity of US light tight oil compared to conventional crude, as well as OPEC’s embrace of market forces in late 2014 in a bid for market share. On the demand front, it shows how the response to lower prices will differ in a low-growth, deflationary environment compared to a higher-growth one.
Not all factors can be easily predicted. Much hangs on the outcome of talks between Iran and the “P5+1” on that of Islamist violence in oil-producing countries, and on future relations between Russia and the West. Such geopolitical risk factors are themselves a defining feature of the oil market for the medium term.
As in previous editions, this Report also offers key projections of global refining capacity, crude trade flows and product supply, this year with special focus on the impact of changing bunker fuel legislation.
Rarely has the oil market faced changes as sweeping as today. That makes the insights from the IEA 2015 Medium-Term Oil Market Report all the more timely and valuable.
Improving resource productivity and ensuring a sustainable resource and materials management building on the principle of the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) is a central element of green growth policies. It helps to improve the environment, by reducing the amount of resources that the economy requires and diminishing the associated environmental impacts, and sustain economic growth by securing adequate supplies of materials and improving competitiveness. To be successful such policies need to be founded on a good understanding of how minerals, metals, timber or other materials flow through the economy throughout their life cycle, and of how this affects the productivity of the economy and the quality of the environment. This report contributes to this understanding. It describes the material basis of OECD economies and provides a factual analysis of material flows and resource productivity in OECD countries in a global context. It considers the production and consumption of materials, as well as their international flows and available stocks, and the environmental implications associated with their use. It also describes some of the challenges and opportunities associated with selected materials and products that are internationally-significant, both in economic and environmental terms (aluminium, copper, iron and steel, paper, phosphate rock and rare earth elements).