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Globalisation and advances in information and communication technologies are reshaping the world’s trading patterns. Today’s internationally competitive businesses work through strategic, integrated global networks designed to deliver efficient and high-quality response to demands from anywhere in the world. This trend has given rise to the terms "global logistics" or "supply-chain management". In addition, growing environmental concerns require that logistics should not only be efficient; they should also contribute to sustainable development.
The OECD TRILOG project aimed to provide insights into these key issues through an exchange of experiences relating to freight transport logistics in the Asia-Pacific, Europe and North American regions. This report attempts to identify constraints and address issues common to the three regions, and suggest possible solutions and approaches that could facilitate the development of policies to promote efficient and sustainable international logistics.
Land links between Europe and Asia can offer a viable alternative to sea transport. However, the provision of efficient land links between Europe and Asia requires appropriate policy decisions on issues such as the development of adequate infrastructure and the removal of regulatory or institutional barriers that prevent the development of efficient transport services. This publication features the recommendations approved by the Ministers and the “Report on Trends in Europe-Asia Trade and Consequences for Transport." It also includes the plan of action approved by Ministers to facilitate intermodal transport between Europe and Asia and the conclusions of a previous seminar in Kiev on “Intermodal Transport between Europe and Asia: Opportunities and Challenges”.
Transport networks in Europe are insufficiently integrated and subject to widespread and increasing congestion, particularly on the roads. This publication reviews these issues and, more specifically, examines the problem of providing better access to Western Europe for peripheral regions and for Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the need to upgrade networks.
Current responses to these problems are inadequate. Statistics and analytical tools are lacking, national approaches are highly differentiated, and analyses and concepts are rudimentary and overly sectoral.
This publication analyses, on an homogeneous basis, the inland transport infrastructures, the investment forecasts and the main traffic flows in 30 European countries of the ECMT. This comparative presentation may be considered as a first step towards better knowledge of the European background.
As the countries of Central and Eastern Europe undergo radical economic upheavals, the question of pan-European transport is brought very sharply into focus. The transport system cannot be viewed simply in terms of the volume of traffic moving from one particular place to another but must be seen as a whole both theoretically and pragmatically in terms of specific projects. What infrastructure is to be selected? Which method of organising transport "markets" is to be preferred? How can needs logically dictated by urgency -- catering to expanding traffic flows despite inadequate transport networks -- be reconciled with such longer-term imperatives as environmental protection or integrating Central and Eastern Europe into a vast area of cultural and economic relations? Specialists attending Round Table 95 addressed all of these issues and tried to discern realistic boundaries for what can be accomplished today.
This Round Table is one of a series of research events to discuss tools to improve transport planning. It addressed the macroeconomic effects of transport infrastructure policies, and aimed at identifying analytical and empirical tools that could determine the overall volume of public expenditure for transport infrastructure investment. It also sought to identify state-of-the-art methods for assessing the macroeconomic impact of transport infrastructure investment. Background papers were provided by David Canning (Harvard University), Charles Hulten (University of Maryland) and Andreas Kopp (OECD/ECMT Transport Research Centre).
Surface transport plays a fundamental role in nearly all social and economic activity. Providing and maintaining the infrastructure consumes enormous resources. Thus, it is essential that this be carried out in the most efficient and effective way possible.
Many options are available to provide surface transport infrastructure – public ministries and agencies, public-private partnerships (PPPs), state-owned companies, private and non-profit entities, and outright privatisation. There are also various means of paying for it, including user charging, subsidies, public borrowing or private financing.
This report examines key principles that should be considered by governments in deciding how to provide and pay for surface transport infrastructure, with a view to best serving societies’ needs and employing public resources. It also considers the key issues that must be resolved in making more use of private financing and expertise.
Much of the current policy debate has considered infrastructure charges as a form of “fiscal” instrument for managing transport demand. The Round Table analysed the opportunities for setting infrastructure service prices so that they also provide guidance for the supply of services. It discussed the possibilities of increasing the finances available for transport infrastructure investment and maintenance by introducing a quasi-market for transport infrastructure services. The general public impression is that charges are a just another tax increase in disguise. Infrastructure charging that uses a mix of “fees for service” and capacity expansion criteria is expected to correct this impression, and thus to improve the political acceptability of infrastructure pricing.
The report discusses the prospects for shifting more travel to the most efficient modes and reducing travel growth rates, improving vehicle fuel efficiency by up to 50% using cost-effective, incremental technologies, and moving toward electricity, hydrogen, and advanced biofuels to achieve a more secure and sustainable transport future. If governments implement strong policies to achieve this scenario, transport can play its role and dramatically reduce CO2 emissions by 2050.
The main goal of this Seminar was to understand the relationship between transport economics research and policymaking.
In Europe, there is an extremely wide range of research approaches (a single government agency or several organisations, a national research programme or one-off contracts, etc.). What do these approaches have in common and what is the ideal research structure? With regard to researchers and research sponsors, monopolies should be avoided. Links between researchers and policymakers need to be as direct as possible. And it is also important that research findings be presented by communication specialists and disseminated very early on, before the final stages of research.
Drawing on the presentation and analysis of national experiences, the Seminar spawned numerous recommendations that can help to define a national research policy, and suggested ways in which researchers and policymakers can organise the relationship between economic research and policymaking in the transport sector.
To mark its hundredth Round Table on transport economics, the ECMT decided to publish a special issue. Fifty European experts were asked to submit papers examining not only the major issues addressed by transport economics in the past, but also those that are likely to emerge in the future. What are the main difficulties facing transport economics? What have been the main advances and how can they help us to solve problems? What remains to be done? The same fifty experts were then invited to take part in an open debate on the issues which they had raised in their papers, ranging from methodological tools to strategies for European transport policies and from the situation of countries in transition to the environment, intermodal transport, new technologies, infrastructure and many other topics. These papers are presented in this volume which also includes a full summary of the discussions at the Round Table.
Transport connects people, places and cities. Investment in transport infrastructure therefore helps bridging economic and social divides. It promotes economic growth and catching up of regions by providing access to jobs for workers and markets for firms. This report summarises evidence on the benefits of transport investment for economic growth and job creation and thereby for catching up in OECD regions. Beyond economic divides, the report consider inequality in access to opportunities using the EC-ITF-OECD Urban Access Framework. It considers how transport can bridge social divides by taking a closer look at accessibility within OECD cities (functional urban areas). Cities differ greatly in their ability to provide inclusive access to opportunities across more affluent and poorer neighbourhoods. To bridge divides, the report highlights the need to go beyond transport infrastructure investment and consider wider urban planning, as well as complementary measures in regions.
This conference proceedings defines transport benchmarking, analyzes its usefulness to policy makers and discusses what lessons can be drawn at the national and international level for policy makers. The first part examines the different methodological aspects raised by benchmarking methods. The conference clarified the multiple concepts included in this type of mechanism and identified different practices which range from the simple statistical tool to a genuine policy lever. The second part describes several concrete examples of benchmarking applications in the transport sector. These examples relate in particular to topics such as road safety, rail transport, the environment, public and urban transport, seaports and air cargo, etc. Each chapter of this publication may be read independently. A fundamental message, common to all the examples presented, emerges: it is essential to improve the quality of statistics in order to ensure more reliable transport benchmarking results.
In Kazakhstan, over 200 public councils at national, regional and local levels provide a platform for civil society to voice its opinion on important social issues. This report analyses the legal and policy framework for stakeholder participation in Kazakhstan, and compares public councils' current practices against the requirements set out in regulations. It proposes practical recommendations to improve the legitimacy, transparency and inclusiveness of public councils in carrying out their duties. Recommendations are supported by good practices in both OECD and other countries that enable, improve and innovate stakeholder participation.
One of the main missions of nuclear regulators is to protect the public, and this cannot be completely achieved without public confidence. The more a regulatory process is transparent, the more such confidence will grow. Despite important cultural differences across countries, a number of common features characterise media and public expectations regarding any activity with an associated risk. This workshop identified a common understanding of transparency and main stakeholders' expectations together with a number of conditions and practices aimed at improving the transparency of nuclear regulatory activities.
This stocktaking report synthesises national approaches towards implementation of Chapter VI of the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises which addresses transparency and disclosure practices by SOEs and their owners. The focus of the stocktaking is on large SOEs that are engaged in economic or commercial activities and in particular those that are active in competitive markets. Enterprises concerned with public policy objectives were not the focus of this exercise.
This report addresses the lack of data on pathways followed by young adults with disabilities beyond secondary education in most OECD countries. It describes the activity undertaken by a sample of Czech, Danish, Dutch, French and Norwegian young adults with disabilities and its evolution, as well as looking into the factors that have facilitated or hindered high-quality transition processes to tertiary education and employment. Do upper secondary schools enable students with special educational needs to move successfully to tertiary education and employment? Are young adults with disabilities supported appropriately when leaving upper secondary schools? Do universities’ and colleges’ admission and support strategies foster transition to and success within tertiary education?
The report shows that young adults with disabilities who left upper secondary education in 2007 have mostly accessed tertiary education, while those leaving tertiary education the same year have mainly entered the labour market. It also reveals that due to low-quality support at upper secondary level and the relative absence of transition issues in upper secondary schools’ policies and strategies, transition to tertiary education and to employment is closely linked with parental support and involvement, and young adults with disabilities coming from a low socio-economic background have less transition opportunities than those coming from a high socio-economic background. It demonstrates that young adults with disabilities who moved on to tertiary education consider they have gained the same opportunities as their non-disabled peers, as well as self-confidence and better inclusion opportunities.
This report also shows that persistent inactivity beyond secondary education has a strong disaffiliation effect. It restricts individuals’ participation opportunities and deprives individuals from social and economic independence as well as from personal well-being.
Using the principles of responsible business conduct identified in the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, this report reviews three key areas of corporate action: accounting for greenhouse gas emissions; achieving emissions reductions; and engaging suppliers, consumers and other stakeholders.
Buildings are the largest energy consuming sector in the world, and account for over one-third of total final energy consumption and an equally important source of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Achieving significant energy and emissions reduction in the buildings sector is a challenging but achievable policy goal.
Transition to Sustainable Buildings presents detailed scenarios and strategies to 2050, and demonstrates how to reach deep energy and emissions reduction through a combination of best available technologies and intelligent public policy. This IEA study is an indispensible guide for decision makers, providing informative insights on:
-Cost-effective options, key technologies and opportunities in the buildings sector;
-Solutions for reducing electricity demand growth and flattening peak demand;
-Effective energy efficiency policies and lessons learned from different countries;
-Future trends and priorities for ASEAN, Brazil, China, the European Union, India, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and the United States;
-Implementing a systems approach using innovative products in a cost effective manner; and
-Pursuing whole-building (e.g. zero energy buildings) and advanced-component policies to initiate a fundamental shift in the way energy is consumed.
If the fishing industry is to survive in the long term, more responsible practices and approaches need to be adopted. This involves not only the industry’s own practices, but also public sector policies and in particular fisheries management approaches. This book identifies possible transition paths to responsible fisheries, assesses their consequences and provides policy recommendations on how to enhance prosperity in this sector.