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World Energy Outlook 2011 brings together the latest data, policy developments, and the experience of another year to provide robust analysis and insight into global energy markets, today and for the next 25 years. This edition of the IEA’s flagship WEO publication gives the latest energy demand and supply projections for different future scenarios, broken down by country, fuel and sector. It also gives special focus to such topical energy sector issues as:
• Russia's energy prospects and their implications for global markets.
• The role of coal in driving economic growth in an emissions-constrained world.
• The implications of a possible delay in oil and gas sector investment in the Middle East and North Africa.
• How high-carbon infrastructure “lock-in” is making the 2°C climate change goal more challenging and expensive to meet.
• The scale of fossil fuel subsidies and support for renewable energy and their impact on energy, economic and environmental trends.
• A “Low Nuclear Case” to investigate what a rapid slowdown in the use of nuclear power would mean for the global energy landscape.
• The scale and type of investment needed to provide modern energy to the billions of the world’s poor that do not have it.
This report addresses multilevel governance challenges in water policy implementation and identifies good practices for coordinating water policy across ministries, between levels of government, and across local actors at subnational level. Based on a methodological framework, it assesses the main “coordination gaps” in terms of policymaking, financing, information, accountability, objectives and capacity building, and provides a platform of existing governance mechanisms to bridge them. Based on an extensive survey on water governance the report provides a comprehensive institutional mapping of roles and responsibilities in water policy-making at national/subnational level in 17 OECD countries. It concludes on preliminary multilevel governance guidelines for integrated water policy.
Public administration has entered a new age. In the 1980s, “less” government was the prevailing idea; in the 1990s and early 21st century, “New Public Management” was the dominant theme. Today, public administration is moving in new directions. Reforms are focusing on the quality of services for citizens and businesses and on the efficiency of administration (the “back office” of government). The OECD is studying these new trends in a multi-annual, cross-country project called “Value for Money in Government”.
This publication focuses on the Netherlands and provides an overview of previous Dutch reforms and recommendations for further reforms in view of the need to get better value for money from government.
Interest in expanding nuclear power to cope with rising demand for energy and potential climate change places increased attention on the nuclear fuel cycle and whether significant moves are being taken towards ensuring sustainability over the long term. Future nuclear power programme decisions will be increasingly based on strategic considerations involving the complete nuclear fuel cycle, as illustrated by the international joint projects for Generation IV reactors. Currently, 90% of installed reactors worldwide operate on a once-through nuclear fuel cycle using uranium-oxide fuel. While closing the fuel cycle has been a general aim for several decades, progress towards that goal has been slow. This report reviews developments in the fuel cycle over the past ten years, potential developments over the next decade and the outlook for the longer term. It analyses technological developments and government actions (both nationally and internationally) related to the fuel cycle, and examines these within a set of sustainability parameters in order to identify trends and to make recommendations for further action.
How have the passenger and freight transport sectors evolved in recent years and during the crisis? And what about road safety? This publication presents data on global trends in the transport sector with up-to-date figures on the impact of the recent economic crisis.
In addition to highlighting major trends in the transport sector, this brochure provides the reader with the latest statistics on transport markets in the International Transport Forum member countries for the period 1970-2009 for all modes of transport. It also describes trends on transport infrastructure investment and maintenance expenditure.
Trade promotes economic growth, alleviates poverty and helps countries reach their development goals. However, developing countries – in particular the least developed – face difficulties in making trade happen and turning trade into economic growth. The Aid for Trade Initiative – launched at the 2005 World Trade Organisation conference in Hong Kong – aims at helping these countries to take advantage of trade opportunities and to reap the benefits of their integration into the world economy. The Initiative has been a success: it has not only raised awareness among both donors and developing countries about the role of trade in development, but also helped secure increased resources.
Trade for Growth and Poverty Reduction: How Aid for Trade Can Help explains how Aid for Trade can foster economic growth and reduce poverty, and why it is an important instrument for a development strategy that actively supports poverty alleviation. Unlocking this potential requires carefully designed and sequenced trade reforms. While developing countries have many trade-related needs, but financial resources and political capital for reforms are limited, it is an important priority to tackle the most binding constraints to trade expansion. This report describes the diagnostic tools available, evaluates their strengths and weaknesses, and suggests a dynamic framework to guide the sequencing of reform and donor support.
This book provides measurement tools, including indicators, to support countries’ efforts to achieve economic growth and development, while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources and environmental services on which well-being relies. The strategy proposes a flexible policy framework that can be tailored to different country circumstances and stages of development. This report accompanies the synthesis report Towards Green Growth.
The Green Growth Strategy, outlined in this book, provides concrete recommendations and measurement tools to support countries’ efforts to achieve economic growth and development, while at the same time ensure that natural assets continue to provide the ecosystem services on which our well being relies. The strategy proposes a flexible policy framework that can be tailored to different country circumstances and stages of development.
This report analyses the partnerships that governments form with citizens, users and CSOs in order to innovate and deliver improved public service outcomes. These approaches can offer creative policy responses that enable governments to provide better public services in times of fiscal constraints. Although co production and citizens’ involvement are still in the developmental stage in many countries, early efforts appear to lead to cost reductions, better service quality and improved user satisfaction. This report identifies the risks of citizen and user involvement in service delivery, and the barriers that must be overcome to make these models work. Top-level political commitment, adequate public sector capacity, and aligned financial incentives are the key factors for success.
“Co-production is attracting increasing interest among scholars and practitioners alike. This report, which offers a comprehensive survey of existing practice across OECD countries, is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the state of play internationally.”
-Professor John Alford, Australia and New Zealand School of Government, (author, Engaging Public Sector Clients: From Service-Delivery to Co-Production, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)
The reliable supply of molybdenum-99 (99Mo) and its decay product, technetium-99m (99mTc), is a vital component of modern medical diagnostic practices. Disruptions in the supply chain of these radioisotopes can delay or prevent important medical testing services. Unfortunately, supply reliability has declined over the past decade, due to unexpected or extended shutdowns at the few ageing, 99Mo-producing, research reactors and processing facilities. These shutdowns have recently created global supply shortages.
This report provides the findings and analysis of two years of extensive examination of the 99Mo/99mTc supply chain by the OECD/NEA High-level Group on the Security of Supply of Medical Radioisotopes (HLG-MR). It puts forth a comprehensive policy approach that would help ensure long-term supply security of 99Mo/99mTc, detailing the essential steps to be taken by governments, industry and the health community to address the vulnerabilities of the supply chain, including its economic structure.
Space applications have become an important part of everyday life. Weather forecasting, air traffic control, global communications and broadcasting, disaster management -- these and many other key activities would be almost unthinkable today without satellite technology. The space industry itself is relatively small compared to other manufacturing sectors, but its technological dynamism and strategic significance mean that it plays an ever more critical role in modern society.
This book assembles information on the space economy from a wide range of official and non-official sources. Together these paint a richly detailed picture of the space industry, its downstream services activities, and its wider economic and social impacts. Who are the main space-faring nations? How large are revenues and how much employment is there in the sector? How much R&D goes on, and where? What is the value of spin-offs from space spending? Answers to these and other questions are provided in this second OECD statistical overview of the emerging space economy.
A dynamic link (StatLink) is provided for graphs, which directs the user to a web page where the corresponding data are available in Excel® format.
This book presents a comprehensive view of Internet intermediaries, their economic and social function, development and prospects, benefits and costs, and roles and responsibilities. Divided into three parts, Part I, The Economic and Social Role of Internet Intermediaries, develops a common definition and understanding of what Internet intermediaries are, of their economic function and economic models, of recent market developments, and discusses the economic and social uses that these actors satisfy. Part II, The Role of Internet Intermediaries in Advancing Public Policy Objectives, examines the roles and responsibilities of Internet intermediaries in advancing public policy objectives, as well as the costs and benefits of their involvement through a series of case studies. Part III provides a summary of an experts workshop that identified lessons learned and best practices from the experience to date of Internet intermediaries in advancing public policy objectives.
This report presents the results of the second thematic peer review based on the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance. The report is focused on the role of institutional investors in promoting good corporate governance practices including the incentives they face to promote such outcomes. It covers 26 different jurisdictions, including in-depth reviews of Australia, Chile and Germany.
The Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness is an exercise in mutual accountability undertaken jointly by the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the OECD following a request of NEPAD Heads of State and Government in 2003. Its purpose is to assess what has been done by Africa and its development partners to deliver commitments in relation to development in Africa, what results have been achieved, and what the key future priorities are. It complements the self-assessments produced by each side to the partnership. The meeting of AU/ECA Finance Ministers in March 2011 reaffirmed the value of this exercise and asked for more regular reports to be produced. In response to this request, an interim 2011 report based on information available as at mid-April was published in May 2011. The main 2011 report follows the same structure as the interim and previous reports, divided into 4 main ‘clusters’ of issues covering: sustainable economic growth, investing in people, good governance and financing for development.
This publication contains the official text of the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Assistance in Tax Matters as amended by the 2010 Protocol. The original Convention was developed jointly by the Council of Europe and the OECD and opened for signature by the member states of both organisations on 25 January 1988. The original Convention was amended in 2010 to align it to the international standard on information exchange for tax purposes and to open it to all countries, responding to the call of the G20 to make it easier for all countries to secure the benefits of the new co-operative tax environment. The amended Convention entered into force on 1 June 2011.
This Convention aims to help governments enforce their tax laws, provides an international legal framework for co-operation among countries in countering international tax avoidance and evasion. It offers a variety of tools for administrative co-operation in tax matters, providing all forms of exchange of information, assistance in tax collection and service of documents. It also facilitates joint audits and information sharing to counter other serious crimes (e.g. money laundering, corruption) when certain conditions are met. It preserves the rights of taxpayers, provides extensive safeguards to protect the confidentiality of the information exchanged, in particular in relation to personal data. The operation of this self-standing multilateral convention is overseen by a Co-ordinating Body comprised of the Parties to the Convention.
This special report assesses the impact of the crisis on the insurance sector and reviews policy responses within OECD countries. It is based to a large extent on a quantitative and qualitative questionnaire that was circulated to OECD countries in 2009. The report shows that generallythe insurance sector demonstrated resilience to the crisis, though with some variation across the OECD, and concludes with a number of policy conclusions.
This report explores likely future changes in family and household structures in OECD countries; identifies what appear to be the main forces shaping the family landscape between now and 2030; discusses the longer-term challenges for policy arising from those expected changes; and on the basis of the three subsequent thematic chapters, suggests policy options for managing the challenges on a sustainable basis.