Browse by: "2009"

The International Energy Agency's authoritative annual global energy projections. This 2009 edition analyses what the economic crisis will mean for energy markets and how the transition to a clean global energy system can be financed. It focuses on three specific areas: financing energy investment under a post 2012 climate framework, prospects for natural gas markets, and energy trends in Southeast Asia.

This book analyses systemic innovation in education by looking at the ways in which educational systems encourage innovation, the knowledge base and processes used, and the procedures and criteria used to assess progress and evaluate outcomes. It draws on findings from 14 case studies in Vocational Education and Training in six OECD countries: Australia, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Mexico and Switzerland. The resulting analysis helps us understand how we can support and sustain innovation in educational systems in the VET sector.

Since 1992, the Information System on Occupational Exposure (ISOE) has provided a forum for radiological protection professionals from nuclear power utilities and national regulatory authorities worldwide to discuss, promote and co-ordinate international co-operative undertakings for the radiological protection of workers at nuclear power plants. The ISOE objective is to improve occupational exposure management at nuclear power plants by exchanging relevant information, data and experience on methods to optimise occupational radiological protection.

This report on work management provides practical guidance on the application of work management principles as a contribution to the optimisation of occupational radiological protection. It recognises that while work management is no longer a new concept, continued efforts are needed to ensure that good performance, outcomes and trends are maintained in the face of current and future challenges. The focus of this report is therefore on presenting the key aspects of work management that should be considered by management and workers to save time, doses and money, supported by updated practical examples from within the ISOE community.

Wind energy is perhaps the most advanced of the “new” renewable energy technologies, but there is still much work to be done. This energy technology roadmap identifies the key tasks that must be undertaken in order to achieve a vision of over 2 000 GW of wind energy capacity by 2050. Governments, industry, research institutions and the wider energy sector will need to work together to achieve this goal.

West African Perspectives: Resources for Development conducts a cross-cutting analysis of the main development challenges in the region and offers suggestions on how to meet them. It provides an overview of West Africa’s abundant resources , examining not only economic and natural resources but also human, social and cultural capital. Finally, it presents the perspectives of six prominent West Africans involved in the development of their region.

This publication presents the most up-to-date statistics on transport markets in International Transport Forum countries for the period 1970-2007, including charts to highlight the major trends. Published earlier than comparable studies, this handy pocket-sized booklet provides the reader with first-hand figures on key transport trends.  Data are provided on rail, road, inland waterway, and pipeline transport for both freight and passengers. Data are also provided on road injuries and investment and maintenance expenditures undertaken in various segments of the transport sector.

The rapidly growing demand for highly skilled workers has led to a global competition for talent. While basic competencies are important for the absorption of new technologies, high-level skills are critical for the creation of new knowledge, technologies and innovation. The OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has taken an innovative approach to examining educational excellence, by directly assessing students’ knowledge, skills and attitudes and exploring how these relate to the characteristics of individual students, schools and education systems. Based on PISA survey results, this report examines who the highest performing students are, what the characteristics of the schools they attend are, to what extent they engage in science related activities outside of school, what their motivations and attitudes towards science are, and what their career intentions are.

This report examines why some policy reforms get implemented and others languish by examining 20 structural reform efforts in 10 OECD countries over the past two decades. The case studies cover a wide variety of reform attempts in three key areas: pensions, labour- and product-market regulation. Key factors in the political, economic and reform-specific arenas are identified as helping or hindering reform, and these findings are cross-checked using a relatively simple set of Spearman rank correlations. The report’s two-pronged analytical approach – quantitative and qualitative – results in unique insights for policy makers designing, adopting and implementing structural policy reforms.

This book explores the social, economic and environmental forces that may combine to attract migrants of various types and backgrounds to OECD countries, as well as those that may persuade migrants to leave their countries or to stay at home. By analysing different pull and push factors and constructing five different scenarios of migration in the future, this volume casts light on major determinants of global migration flows, which OECD countries will look particularly attractive for migrants, where the pressures to migrate be especially strong and what kind of migration-related issues will policy makers likely be facing as 2030 approaches.

The financial crisis required governments to make massive interventions in their financial systems. This book sets out priorities for reforming incentives in financial markets as well as for phasing out these emergency measures.

Against the background of a projected doubling of world greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century, this book explores feasible ways to abate them at least cost. Through quantitative analysis, it addresses key climate policy issues including: an ideal set of climate policy tools; the size of the economic and environmental costs of incomplete country or sector coverage of climate change mitigation policies;  how to concretely develop a global carbon market; the case for, and what can we reasonably expect from, R&D and technology support policies; and  the incentives for major emitting countries to join a climate change mitigation agreement.

Public expenditure control has become a central element of economic policy in many countries. This report analyses budget practices and some recent innovations from the point of view of senior public servants in the central budget offices of nineteen OECD Member countries. It also summarises the institutional framework and procedures governing budgeting in each of these countries.

Social enterprises are entering a new phase of consolidation after overcoming various challenges over the last 10 years in their efforts to foster sustainable local development, help create local wealth and jobs, and fight social exclusion. This book contains recommendations for national and local policy makers and presents a set of international best practices based on new legislation that has been enacted, novel frontiers that have opened up, and support and financial tools that have been developed.

The biological sciences are adding value to a host of products and services, producing what some have labelled the “bioeconomy” and offering the potential to make major socio-economic contributions in OECD countries.  Using quantitative analyses of data on development pipelines and R&D expenditures from private and public databases, this book estimates biotechnological developments to 2015. Moving to a broader institutional view, it also looks at the roles of R&D funding, human resources, intellectual property, and regulation in the bioeconomy, as well as at possible developments that could influence emerging business models to create scenarios to 2030. These scenarios are included to stimulate reflection on the interplay between policy choices and technological advances in shaping the bioeconomy. Finally, the book explores policy options to support the social, environmental and economic benefits of a bioeconomy.