Browse by: "2021"

Electricity is an integral part of all modern economies, supporting a range of critical services. Secure supply of electricity is of paramount importance. The power sector is going through fundamental changes with increasing pressure from climate change. Climate change directly affects every segment of the electricity system altering generation potential and efficiency, testing physical resilience of transmission and distribution networks, and changing demand patterns. Effective policy measures and co-ordinated action among key actors play a central role in building resilience to climate change. This report provides an overview of the climate impacts on electricity systems. It describes how climate change affects each segment of the electricity value chain – generation, transmission and distribution, and demand – with case studies around the world. It proposes a step-by-step application of measures for policy makers and key stakeholders to build the climate resilience of electricity systems.

Coal 2020 highlights recent global and regional trends in coal demand, supply and trade, and an outlook to 2025. The extraordinary circumstances in 2020 impacted coal markets and lend uncertainty to how they will be tailored in a post-Covid-19 economic recovery. Therefore, Coal 2020 spotlights developments in 2020 and expected conditions in 2021. It also provides an analysis of the evolution of coal supply costs, prices and investment in mining projects. China – the world’s largest coal producer and importer as well as consumer of more than half of global coal – is highlighted. In addition, Coal 2020 includes forecasts of coal demand, production and trade by region and coal grade, and a compilation of coal mining projects in the main exporting countries in its annexes. Coal 2020 is an integral component of the International Energy Agency’s annual market report series that also includes oil, natural gas, renewables, electricity and energy efficiency.

This report, commissioned by France’s Ministry for the Ecological Transition and written jointly by the International Energy Agency and RTE, the French Transmission System Operator, examines the conditions and requirements needed to assess the technical feasibility of scenarios with very high shares of variable renewable energy in France’s power system. The report looks into trends for energy demand and renewable resource availability in the 2020 National Low-Carbon Strategy (Stratégie nationale bas-carbone, or SNBC). Several scenarios of high shares of renewables are examined: mainly based on onshore wind, mainly based on offshore wind expansion and mainly based on distributed PV. Building on these scenarios, the report looks at changes in the system’s flexibility needs and how the range from short-term to long-term flexibility can be satisfied by new technologies such as flexible charging of electrified transport, battery storage, demand-side flexibility and sector coupling. The report then looks to essential questions on electricity security, i.e. addressing the issue of keeping system stability in the context of decreasing system inertia, ensuring adequacy of the system and the sizing available reserves under a scenario of large shares of variable renewables. Finally, the report evaluates the VRE integration capacity of the existing French transmission network, as well as necessary modifications and expansion beyond 2035. The recommendations and findings of this report form the basis for further detailed technical and economic assessments that are to be carried out by RTE in 2021.

Conflicts in North and West Africa have become more violent and widespread than in the past. They have also become more difficult to resolve due to the complex relationships between a growing number of belligerents with diverging agendas. Building on a dataset of more than 36 000 violent events over a 23‑year period and three case studies (Lake Chad, Central Sahel and Libya), this report maps conflict networks and the evolution of rivalries and alliances in 21 North and West African countries. It applies an innovative approach, Dynamic Social Network Analysis, to explain the types and evolution of relationships across actors in conflict. Finally, the report analyses the impact of military interventions on the re‑composition of violent groups and the shifting nature of insecurity. This new analysis, based on temporal and spatial approaches contributes to the creation of strategies that will ensure long‑term political stability and serves as a reminder that there is a need for co‑ordinated regional approaches and place‑based policies.

This report explores the accessibility challenges that people face in remote areas. It demonstrates how state support can ensure access to essential services and reduce social and economic isolation where private markets fail to provide adequate transport connections. It provides a classification of policy interventions in different countries and reviews common design and implementation challenges. Finally, it analyses different approaches to determine the appropriate level of state support for transport in remote communities.

Germany has a strong skill development system. The country’s 15‑year‑old students performed above the OECD average in the last (2018) edition of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), continuing a trend of significant improvement since PISA’s first edition in 2000. Its adult population also has above‑average literacy and numeracy skills, according to the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). A strong and well-respected vocational education and training system is seen as one of the success factors behind these achievements. However, participation in learning beyond initial education lags behind other high-performing OECD countries and varies considerably across different groups of the population. This is problematic in a rapidly changing labour market, where participation in continuing education and training is a precondition for individuals, enterprises and economies to harness the benefits of these changes. This report assesses the current state of the German continuing education and training (CET) system. It examines how effectively and efficiently the system prepares people and enterprises for the changes occurring in the world of work, and identifies what changes are necessary to make the CET system more future ready. The report makes recommendations for the further development of the CET system based on international good practice.

Corporate Tax Statistics brings together a range of valuable information to support the analysis of corporate taxation and base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) practices. This includes data on corporate tax rates, revenues, effective tax rates, and tax incentives for R&D and innovation amongst other data series. Corporate Tax Statistics also includes anonymised and aggregated country-by-country reporting data providing an overview on the global tax and economic activities of thousands of multinational enterprise groups operating worldwide. Corporate Tax Statistics follows on from the OECD/G20 BEPS Project and its package of 15 measures adopted in 2015 to address tax avoidance. This third edition of the database contains several new data categories including data on Action 13 implementation and data on expenditure-based tax incentives for R&D and innovation. It also contains a significant expansion in the country coverage of anonymised and aggregated Country-by-Country reporting data.

On-going multi-stakeholder discussions have raised important questions on the perceived imbalance of how due diligence costs and benefits are distributed along the supply chain. This position paper was drafted in response to stakeholder calls that the OECD examine this topic with the objective of raising awareness, better informing discussions, identifying key research questions, and guiding stakeholders towards viable solutions.

The Swiss economy is innovative and knowledge-intensive. Consequently, it relies heavily on intellectual property rights. Swiss industries are also export-oriented and solidly integrated in the global economy. At the same time, the threats of counterfeiting and piracy are growing, and Swiss industries are vulnerable. This report measures the direct economic effects of counterfeiting on Swiss industry and the Swiss government. It estimates the impact of the global trade in fake products that pose as “Swiss made” in terms of lost jobs, forgone profits and lower tax revenues.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments face both old and new fraud risks, some at unprecedented levels, linked to spending on relief and recovery. Public grant programmes are a high-risk area, where any fraud ultimately diverts taxpayers’ money away from essential support for individuals and businesses. This report identifies how Spain’s General Comptroller of the State Administration (Intervención General de la Administración del Estado, IGAE) could better identify and control for grant fraud risks. It demonstrates how innovative machine learning techniques can support the IGAE in enhancing its assessment of fraud risks in grant data. It presents a working risk model, developed with datasets at the IGAE’s disposal, and maps datasets it could use in the future. The report also considers the preconditions for advanced analytics and risk assessments, including ways for the IGAE to improve its data governance and data management.

Under the Action 13 Minimum Standard of the OECD/G20 BEPS Project, jurisdictions have committed to foster tax transparency by requesting the largest multinational enterprise groups (MNE Groups) to provide the global allocation of their income, taxes and other indicators of the location of economic activity. This unprecedented information on MNE Groups’ operations across the world has boosted tax authorities’ risk assessment capabilities. The Action 13 Minimum Standard was translated into specific terms of reference and a methodology for the peer review process. The peer review of the Action 13 Minimum Standard has completed four annual reviews in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. These cover the three key areas under review: the domestic legal and administrative framework, the exchange of information framework, and the confidentiality and appropriate use of Country-by-Country (CbC) reports. This 2021 annual peer review report reflects the outcome of the fourth review which considered all aspects of implementation. It contains the review of 132 member jurisdictions of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS which provided legislation or information pertaining to the implementation of CbC Reporting.

The COVID-19 crisis has reiterated the importance of adult learning and career guidance services as many adults have lost their jobs and now require upskilling and reskilling opportunities in order to keep pace with the rapidly evolving world of work. To foster the development of responsive and more widespread adult learning opportunities in Japan, this report analyses several policy options to expand access to training, remove the barriers to training participation, and ensure that the training provided is aligned with Japan’s labour market needs. It also discusses the importance for Japanese workers of receiving guidance and support from their employer to facilitate career progression and the need for externally provided guidance services for workers who want to change jobs. Based on this analysis, this report provides actionable policy recommendations as well as good practice examples from OECD countries.

IUCLID (International Uniform Chemical Information Database) is a software application designed to record, store, maintain and exchange data on chemicals. It is a key software application for both regulatory bodies and the chemical industry where it is used in the implementation of various regulatory programmes. IUCLID can be customised and configured to manage chemical data in different contexts and is a platform employing globally harmonised data elements pertinent to chemicals. It is continuously updated to provide greater customisation, extension and integration with other tools. This second edition provides the latest updates on IUCLID features and processes, including visual “working” contexts for the preparation and management of data according to regulatory contexts or data processes, possibilities for data entry in multiple languages, and a matrix view of the use of IUCLID in OECD countries.