Browse by: "2009"

A number of renewable electricity technologies, such as wind, wave, tidal, solar, and run-of-river hydro share a characteristic that distinguishes them from conventional power plants: their output varies according to the availability of the resource.

This is commonly perceived to be challenging at high shares, but there is no intrinsic, technical ceiling to variable renewables’ potential. Variability has to be looked at in the context of power system flexibility: if a power system is sufficiently flexible, in terms of power production, load management, interconnection and storage, the importance of the variability aspect is reduced.

Expecting substantial savings and improved public services – a trend further accentuated by the financial and economic crisis beginning in 2008 – OECD countries have invested in the development of e-government services over the past 10-15 years. However, despite the initial exceptional take-up, governments later saw low adoption and low use of e-government services which are still far from satisfactory today.

This report gives a broad description of the shift in governments' focus on e-government development –  from a government-centric to a user-centric approach. It gives a comprehensive overview of challenges to user take-up of e-government services in OECD countries and of the different types of approaches to improving it. The monitoring and evaluation of user take-up are also discussed, including the existence of formal measurement frameworks. Good practices are presented to illustrate the different concrete approaches used by OECD countries.

Etwa 190 Millionen Menschen leben weltweit außerhalb ihres Herkunftslands. Diese Zuwanderer bereichern unsere Gesellschaften durch ihre Energie, ihren Unternehmergeist und ihre Ideen. Dabei gibt es aber auch negative Aspekte wie schulisches Versagen unter jungen Zuwanderern, Arbeitslosigkeit unter Migranten und natürlich irreguläre Migration. Solche Herausforderungen können die Zuwanderung zu einem politischen Zankapfel und heiß umstrittenen Diskussionsthema machen.

Gestützt auf die einzigartige Fachkompetenz der OECD betrachtet diese Publikation die Realitäten internationaler Migration in der heutigen Zeit jenseits aller rhetorischen Floskeln: Woher kommen die Zuwanderer, und wohin gehen sie? Wie steuern die Staaten die Migration? Mit welchem Erfolg nehmen Zuwanderer an Bildung und Arbeitsleben teil? Und hilft Zuwanderung – oder schadet sie – den Entwicklungsländern?

Cette publication examine les succès d’importants pôles d’entreprises et d’innovation des pays de l’OCDE, les défis auxquels ceux-ci doivent actuellement faire face pour maintenir leurs positions, ainsi que les enseignements dont pourraient bénéficier d’autres candidats à la création de pôles performants. De quels facteurs clés dépend le succès d’un pôle ? Quels sont les problèmes qui se profilent à l’horizon ? Quel rôle doit exactement jouer le secteur public pour soutenir le développement des pôles et vaincre les différents obstacles ?

Ces questions, et bien d’autres encore, sont abordées par l’ouvrage qui se livre à l’analyse détaillée de sept pôles de renommée internationale : Grenoble, en France ; Vienne, en Autriche ; Waterloo, au Canada ; Dunedin, en Nouvelle-Zélande ; Medicon Valley, en Scandinavie ; Oxfordshire, au Royaume-Uni ; et Madison, aux États-Unis. Pour chacun de ces pôles, le livre examine les facteurs qui ont contribué à son développement, l’impact du pôle sur les performances de l’entrepreneuriat local, et les défis posés par une expansion supplémentaire. Le livre propose également une série de recommandations politiques s’attachant, dans un contexte élargi, à la question du développement des pôles.

Cet ouvrage constitue une lecture essentielle pour tous les décideurs publics, praticiens et universitaires désireux de connaître les bonnes pratiques en matière de développement des pôles et souhaitant obtenir des conseils pour accroître l’impact économique des pôles.

Learning for Jobs is an OECD study of vocational education and training (VET) designed to help countries make their VET systems more responsive to labour market needs.

In England and Wales, a substantial commitment, backed by increased resources, has been made to the enhancement of workplace skills. Policy-making is self-evidently dynamic and innovative and governments are making conscious attempts to improve employer engagement – the particular topic of this report. At the same time there are a number of challenges – in particular that of linking enhanced employer engagement to a strong apprenticeship system, and of overcoming the obstacle of a complex and unstable institutional environment.

The OECD review assesses the main challenges faced by the VET system and presents an interconnected package of policy recommendations. For each recommendation, the report describes the challenge, the recommendation itself, supporting arguments, and issues of implementation.

Learning for Jobs is an OECD study of vocational education and training (VET) designed to help countries make their VET systems more responsive to labour market needs.

The government’s commitment to develop and reform the VET system is illustrated by the recent work of the VET Commission and the creation of the National Council for VET. Chilean society places a high value on education and training, with fast-increasing participation in post-compulsory education. At the same time, the various elements of the VET system are weakly connected to each other, the literacy and numeracy skills of 15 year olds in Chile are not as good as they should be, and workplace training, as part of VET programmes, is weakly developed.

The OECD review assesses the main challenges faced by the VET system and presents an interconnected package of policy recommendations. For each recommendation, the report describes the challenge, the recommendation itself, supporting arguments, and issues of implementation.

Over the past decade, Mexico has made significant progress towards macroeconomic stability and has undertaken important structural reforms to further open the economy to trade and investment, and improve the functioning of markets for goods and services. However, potential gross domestic product (GDP) growth remains much too low to reduce widespread poverty and bridge the wide gap in living standards with wealthier OECD countries. One important reason for this is that Mexico has been slower than those in many competing newly industrialising economies to realise the importance of investment in innovation as a driver of growth and competitiveness.

This book assesses the current status of Mexico’s innovation system and policies, and identifies where and how the government should focus its efforts to improve the country’s innovation capabilities.

Ce rapport constitue une source unique d’estimations récentes du soutien à l’agriculture et fournit un panorama du soutien à l’agriculture dans la zone de l’OCDE, complété par des chapitres sur l’évolution des politiques agricoles dans chaque pays de l’OCDE. Le soutien global accordé aux agriculteurs des pays de l’OCDE est en baisse. Ce rapport montre que la baisse du soutien a été en grande partie due à un resserrement de l’écart entre les prix des produits agricoles sur les marchés nationaux et sur les marchés mondiaux.

Ce rapport porte également sur l’impact des crises financière et économique actuelles sur le secteur agricole ainsi que sur les réponses apportées par les pouvoirs publics. L’agriculture devrait  mieux s’en sortir que nombre d’autres secteurs. Elle est moins exposée financièrement, la demande pour ses produits est moins sensible aux baisses de revenu et les politiques de soutien en place dans bon nombre de pays peuvent atténuer l’impact de la crise. Les pouvoirs publics font face à une situation budgétaire plus tendue, ce qui suscitera probablement la révision des politiques de soutien, y compris en matière agricole.

La loi agricole de 2008 des États-Unis, le «Bilan de santé» de la politique agricole commune et l’accord-cadre Cultivons l’avenir au Canada sont également passés en revue dans ce rapport. Une section spéciale traite de l’évolution des politiques agro-environnementales des pays de l’OCDE.

This review analyses the energy challenges facing Spain and provides critiques and recommendations for further policy improvements. It finds that since the last IEA in-depth review in 2005, Spain has made significant progress in improving its energy policy. In Europe, the country is now leading in gas diversification and LNG development. Together with Portugal, it has set up the common Iberian electricity market, MIBEL, and has strong ambitions in developing it further. It has also become prominent in developing wind and solar energy technology, and succeeded in integrating large amounts of intermittent power in the electricity grid.

Along with other IEA member countries, Spain has set ambitious climate and energy security targets. Achieving these will require a transition to a low-carbon economy. Spain will need to increase its efforts to reduce CO₂ emissions, particularly in the transport but also the critical power sector. As fossil fuels still provide more than half of electricity,Spain will need to keep open all the options - including nuclear, renewables, and the technology of carbon capture and storage - for making its power sector less carbon-intensive. The country should also increase its efforts to limit peak electricity demand through energy efficiency.

Spain has substantially de-regulated its electricity and gas tariffs, and developed a financial plan to end the large deficit that had built up under the previous tariff regime. Prices for many small electricity users, however, are still regulated and low enough to potentially distort the market. In addition, the still remaining subsidies for domestic coal production should be eliminated and replaced by direct social policy measures.