Browse by: "P"
Index
Title Index
Year Index
The industrial treatment of spent nuclear fuel is presently performed using different wet chemical processes. Alternative dry processes, using pyrochemical methods, have received some attention due to their potential advantages in terms of plant design and criticality safety, as well as radiation dose.
Recent progress in the transmutation of long-lived fission products and minor actinides has brought renewed interest in pyrochemical methods, as effective transmutation will be based on multi-recycling of the fuel with very high burn-up and short cooling times, conditions under which pyrochemical methods offer various advantages over wet processes.
Studies of pyrochemical processes have so far been carried out at laboratory level. Considerable R&D work is still required in order to upgrade these processes to the current level of industrial aqueous processing.
This book sets out a potential response to two major challenges facing OECD countries: the "youth problem", or the need to ensure that young people can play a full role in society, and the need to foster entrepreneurship for job creation, innovation and economic adaptability. The "new economy" will be built on a culture of entrepreneurship and this must include youth as well as adults. In publishing this book, the OECD therefore wishes to stimulate policy debate on the factors that encourage youth entrepreneurship, the obstacles that stand in its way and the policy measures that can support it.
A picture is painted of youth entrepreneurship programmes operating at national, regional and local levels across the OECD in a wide variety of settings and with various different approaches and delivery mechanisms. The result is the first international review of "best practices" in this new and emerging area. Examples are given of programmes for education and training, help with capital, ideas and operational matters, counselling and mentoring, networking and intergenerational transfers of businesses. The range of players and activities involved are set out and suggestions are made for where gaps might be filled. The main message is that young people can indeed found new businesses and succeed, but new policies will be needed if they are to be fully encouraged.
One of the alternatives to traditional command-and-control regulation is the use of marketable permits and obligations. Based on the growing record of actual performance of these instruments, this paper provides practical insights into difficult design, implementation, and management issues. It presents a checklist to aid practitioners in assessing when these instruments are preferable to traditional regulatory practices.
Green growth is vital to secure a brighter, more sustainable future for developing countries. Developing countries will pay a high price for failing to tackle local and global environmental threats because they are more dependent on natural resources and are more vulnerable to resources scarcity and natural disasters.
This book presents evidence that green growth is the only way to sustain growth and development over the long-term. Green growth does not replace sustainable development, but is a means to achieve it. Green growth values natural assets, which are essential to the well-being and livelihoods of people in developing countries, and if policies are designed to respond to the needs of the poorest, green growth can contribute to poverty reduction and social equity.
Building on experience with green growth policies in developing countries and extensive consultations with developing country stakeholders, this report provides a twin-track approach with agendas for national and international action. It responds to developing country concerns about the technical challenges arising from early efforts to “go green” and documents a wealth of examples from developing countries. Green growth objectives and policies will need to be mainstreamed into every government objective and most importantly, into national budgets. Green growth policies can use untapped opportunities to boost domestic fiscal revenues and attract quality investment for years to come. International co-operation is needed to help mitigate the short-term costs that may be associated with pursuing green growth. International flows of money, trade and technology know-how is vital to encourage pursuit of green growth in developing countries.
The Public Management Occasional Papers are specialised reports prepared for the work of the OECD's Public Management Committee. This publication focuses on the reform strategies used in Portugal. The success or failure of reforms depends largely on how the questions of "how to start" and "how to proceed" are addressed. Portugal offers a valuable example. Twenty years ago, a reform movement was launched to modernise the country and its public service. This publication describes that reform, which came to put service to the citizen first, underlines its innovative aspects, and draws some interesting lessons to the attention of practitioners in other countries.
New opportunities to use carbon dioxide (CO2) in the development of products and services are capturing the attention of governments, industry and the investment community. Climate change mitigation is the primary driver for this increased interest, but other factors include technology leadership and supporting a circular economy. This analysis considers the near-term market potential for five key categories of CO2-derived products and services: fuels, chemicals, building materials from minerals, building materials from waste, and CO2 use to enhance the yields of biological processes.
While some technologies are still at an early stage of development, all five categories could individually be scaled-up to a market size of at least 10 MtCO2/yr – almost as much as the current CO2 demand for food and beverages – but most face commercial and regulatory barriers. CO2 use can support climate goals where the application is scalable, uses low-carbon energy and displaces a product with higher life-cycle emissions. Some CO2-derived products also involve permanent carbon retention, in particular building materials. A better understanding and improved methodology to quantify the life-cycle climate benefits of CO2 use applications are needed.
The market for CO2 use is expected to remain relatively small in the short term, but early opportunities could be developed, especially those related to building materials. Public procurement of low-carbon products can help to create an early market for CO2-derived products and assist in the development of technical standards. In the long term, CO2 sourced from biomass or the air could play a key role in a net-zero CO2 emission economy, including as a carbon source for aviation fuels and chemicals.
At the end of 1997, Korea was hit by a major financial and economic crisis, which resulted, among other things, in a huge rise in unemployment. The event caught the country’s labour and social institutions unprepared, so that many workers and their families were hit hard.
The economy has now turned the corner. This book shows that government labour and social policies, together with improved basic workers’ rights, have helped minimise the costs of the crisis while also contributing to overcome it. However, this book also highlights the need for further actions in these areas in order to pave the way for a healthy, socially-sustainable economic performance and argues the case that the momentum of reform should not be slowed.
Countries are seeking ways to strengthen their financing systems to promote access to quality health services under their commitments to Universal Health Coverage. Chronic conditions account for a large burden of premature mortality, and gaps exist in patient receipt of recommended quality care. The objective of this publication is to describe experiences in purchasing arrangements and payment methods and how they have been used to attain quality of care and health outcomes for chronic conditions.
The publication builds on the existing body of empirical evidence and newly commissioned case studies from Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Germany, Indonesia, South Africa, and Spain to better understand the design of different purchasing arrangements that aim to promote quality for chronic disease care. We identify lessons learned in alignment of payment methods with service delivery models, key design issues in quality and payment, supporting purchasing policies, and monitoring and evaluation. Recognising that no single model is applicable to all settings, the publication aimed to share lessons learned and best practices and identify areas for future research, particularly in low- and middle-income settings.
The purchasing power parities and real expenditures contained in this joint Eurostat - OECD publication cover 55 countries including the 30 OECD Member countries, the 27 EU countries, ten CIS countries, six Western Balkan countries and Israel. They are based on price and expenditure data for 2005 and have been calculated using the EKS aggregation method. International comparisons of price levels and real GDP can be made using the price and volume measures presented in this publication. This publication includes StatLinks, URLs under each graph and table providing links to Excel® spreadsheet files containing the underlying statistical data.
This publication presents the purchasing power parities and associated estimates of real expenditure on GDP calculated for the 2002 round of the Eurostat-OECD PPP Programme. It includes data for all OECD and EU countries plus Israel and the Russian Federation. The data are based on price and expenditure data for 2002 and have been calculated using the EKS aggregation method. International comparisons of price levels and real GDP can be made using the measures presented in this publication and its related database.
The purchasing power parities and real expenditures contained in this publication cover 43 countries including the 30 OECD Member countries, the 13 EU candidate countries, Israel and the Russian Federation. They are based on price and expenditure data for 1999 and have been calculated using the EKS aggregation method. International comparisons of price levels and real GDP can be made using the price and volume measures presented in this publication.
The purchasing power parities and real expenditures contained in this publication cover all 29 OECD Member countries, except Korea, and four non-member countries: Israel, Slovenia, the Slovak Republic and the Russian Federation. They are based on price and expenditure data for 1996 and have been calculated using the EKS aggregation method. International comparisons of price levels and real GDP can be made using the price and volume measures presented in this publication. Countries covered: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Russian Federation, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States.
This OECD Emission Scenario Document (ESD) is intended to provide information on the sources, use patterns and release pathways of chemicals used in the pulp, paper and board industry, in order to help estimate releases of chemicals into the environment. This ESD covers the use of chemicals in the making of paper and board and the recycling of paper and board. The main processes considered are paper-making and paper recycling
The debate about how to achieve value for money in the delivery of government services is ongoing. Increasingly, public services are being produced, procured and delivered to citizens by public-private partnerships. This book highlights ten good practices, summarising what countries should consider before entering into public-private partnerships (PPPs). These include affordability, value for money, budget scoring and accounting treatment, dealing with liabilities (contingent or explicit), and regulatory and institutional governance issues. The book also discusses the important questions of risk – both financial and political – and of how to measure the performance of a public-private partnership to ensure its continued value to society. Drawing upon country examples within and outside the OECD area, this book will help governments and the public to come to grips with this complex mechanism and its impact on public finances as well as on the definition of the boundaries between the state and the market.
"Nicolas Pinaud does a masterful job of surveying the state of our knowledge -- both in theory and practice around the world -- and offers a thorough and balanced review of the potential benefits as well as risks of closer relations between business and government."
-Ben Ross Schneider, Professor of Political Science, Northwestern University.
In most PISA-participating countries and economies, the average socio-economic background of students who attend privately managed schools is more advantaged than that of those who attend public schools. Yet in some countries, there is little difference in the socio-economic profiles between public and private schools. Why? An analysis of PISA results finds that while the prevalence of privately managed schools in a country is not related to socio-economic stratification within a school system, the level of public funding to privately managed schools is: the higher the proportion of public funding allocated to privately managed schools, the smaller the socio-economic divide between publicly and privately managed schools. This report also shows that those countries with narrow socio-economic stratification in their education systems not only maximise equity and social cohesion, but also perform well in the PISA survey.
Building on the previous report, this report examines how governments can move from a tactical to a holistic approach to system change. Drawing on diverse case studies from across the world at both national and local levels, the report illustrates how a strategic approach to system change implies three key elements: envisioning and acting on the future, putting public value at the core of the change process, and systematically engaging citizens in decision-making.
Is public support for international development failing? The question was examined in a number of contexts during a meeting of experts brought together in a joint enterprise by the OECD Development Assistance Committee and the OECD Development Centre. Views ranged widely but the overall consensus was that governments can and must do more to encourage public awareness of assistance activities and international co-operation for development, in order to encourage public support for these initiatives.