Browse by: "A"
Index
Title Index
Year Index
The development of plastic products does not systematically take sustainability, particularly from a chemicals perspective, into account. This report seeks to enable the creation of inherently sustainable plastic products by integrating sustainable chemistry thinking in the design process. By applying a chemicals lens during the plastic material selection process, designers and engineers can make informed decisions to incorporate sustainable plastic during the conceptualisation phase of their products.
The report provides an integrated approach to sustainable plastic selection from a chemicals perspective, and identifies a set of generalisable sustainable design goals, life cycle considerations and trade-offs. At a more granular level, considerations are identified for each life-cycle phase, which are brought together as a whole-product assessment and optimisation taking the full life cycle into account. The report also considers trade-offs that will need to be carefully balanced in the design phase and reflection on implications of design choices. Ultimately, the report helps to equip designers and engineers with knowledge of relevant chemical considerations when selecting sustainable plastic, supporting better outcomes and a more transparent process.
The report provides an overview of development finance with biodiversity-related objectives from a wide range of sources: bilateral Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members, non-DAC and South-South and triangular co-operation providers, multilateral institutions, private finance mobilised by development finance, and private philanthropy. The estimates are based on OECD statistical data. The report identifies the main gaps between biodiversity-related priorities and investments, and provides detailed estimates on financial allocations to the fight against illegal wildlife trade; nature-based solutions; indigenous peoples and local communities; the mainstreaming of biodiversity; gender equality; and climate change. These elements can help DAC members and other stakeholders to step up and target their biodiversity-related investments, notably to implement the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework under the Convention on Biological Diversity.
A lack of finance for water resources management is a primary concern for most OECD countries. This is exacerbated in the current fiscal environment of tight budgets and strong fiscal consolidation, as public funding provides the lion’s share of financial resources for water management.
The report provides a framework for policy discussions around financing water resources management that are taking place at local, basin, national, or transboundary levels. The report goes beyond the traditional focus on financing water supply and sanitation to examine the full range of water management tasks that governments have to fulfill; when appropriate, a distinction is made on distinctive water issues.
The report identifies four principles (Polluter Pays, Beneficiary Pays, Equity, Policy Coherence), which have to be combined. In addition, it identifies five empirical issues, which have to be addressed on a case-by-case basis. Finally, it sketches a staged approach that governments might wish to consider, to assess the financial status of their water policies and to design robust financial strategies for water management. Case studies provide illustrations of selected instruments and how they can be used to finance water resources management.
This roadmap aims to assist the Albanian government in establishing robust policy foundations for a successful circular economy transition.
As an EU candidate country, Albania has committed to align with European climate objectives by endorsing the Sofia Declaration on the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans, with the circular economy transition being its key component. Recognising the prominent role of this transition in both national and regional development and proactively addressing the challenges posed by increasing climate change vulnerabilities, reliance on imported raw materials and increased waste, Albania is now poised for a strategic framework followed by concrete actions to embark on this transformative journey.
Informed by a comprehensive diagnostic of Albania’s circular economy landscape, the roadmap strategically integrates existing policy initiatives, fostering synergies across sectors, measures and actors involved in this transformation. Highlighting three key areas where circular economy policies can have a significant impact in Albania – economic instruments, circular business models for SMEs and targeted solutions for plastics, with a focus on marine litter – the roadmap unveils 35 policy recommendations. These recommendations, supported by a monitoring framework, should serve as a cornerstone for propelling Albania towards a more sustainable and circular future.
This roadmap is designed to aid North Macedonia’s government in establishing a solid policy foundation for a successful transition to a circular economy.
As an EU candidate country, North Macedonia has pledged to align with European climate objectives, endorsing the Sofia Declaration on the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans, with a particular focus on the circular economy transition. Acknowledging the pivotal role of this transition in national and regional development and actively addressing challenges posed by climate change, reliance on imported raw materials and increased waste, North Macedonia is ready for a strategic framework and concrete actions to initiate this transformative process.
Derived from a comprehensive diagnostic of North Macedonia’s circular economy landscape, the roadmap strategically integrates existing policy initiatives, fostering synergies across sectors, measures and involved actors. It emphasises five key areas – circular business models for SMEs, construction, biomass and food, textile industry and mining and metallurgy – revealing over 40 policy recommendations. These recommendations, supported by a monitoring framework, are poised to be a cornerstone for propelling North Macedonia towards a more sustainable and circular future.
Global warming is likely to reach 1.5°C as early as in 2030, with current climate action falling short of meeting the Paris Agreement goals and a mounting risk of tipping beyond the ability of human societies to adapt. Building on broader OECD work on climate, this report proposes a new OECD territorial climate indicator framework and demonstrates that the potential to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to climate impacts and address vulnerabilities varies across different territories. The report also presents a policy framework of 9 recommended actions to help decision makers unleash more effective climate action and resilience, both by integrating a territorial approach into national and subnational climate policies and by mainstreaming climate objectives into urban, rural and regional policies. The report summarises the analysis into a checklist for national and local governments to implement a territorial approach to climate and resilience policies, as well as a compendium of 36 best practices from cities, regions and countries from all around the world.
This report builds on the OECD Well-being Framework and applies a new perspective that analyses synergies and trade-offs between climate change mitigation and broader goals such as health, education, jobs, as well as wider environmental quality and the resources needed to sustain our livelihoods through time. This report takes an explicitly political economy approach to the low-emissions transitions needed across five economic sectors (electricity, heavy industry, residential, surface transport, and agriculture) that are responsible for more than 60% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Synergies between emissions reduction and broader well-being objectives, such as reduced air pollution and improved health, increase the incentives for early mitigation action. At the same time, the impact of climate policies on issues such as the affordability of energy and jobs need to be taken into account to counter growing economic and social inequalities within and between countries. The report argues that reframing climate policies using a well-being lens is necessary for making visible such synergies and trade-offs; allowing decision-makers to increase the former and anticipate, manage and minimise the latter. This requires us to rethink societal goals in terms of well-being, reframe our measures of progress and refocus policy-making accordingly.
This report analyses the actions necessary in the near and medium term to reduce Israel’s GHG emissions in three sectors– electricity, residential and transport, for which specific policy recommendations are developed. The report will serve as input to the roadmap that will be developed to support the country’s long-term low-emission strategy (LT-LEDS). The report adopts a “well-being lens” that aims to integrate climate action and broader societal priorities, such as affordable housing, better accessibility to jobs, services and opportunities, and improved health. Such an approach can make climate policies both easier to implement politically, economically and socially, as well as more cost-effective. Particular attention is given to avoiding locking in unsustainable development pathways that would impede the achievement of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions in the second half of the century. In addition to the range of sector specific recommendations, a key recommendation for Israel is to enshrine the vision and targets of its LT-LEDS in national legislation, once developed and agreed. While written before the COVID-19 crisis, this report can also inform decisions on Israel’s recovery from the crisis, helping to avoid actions that would lock-in “inferior” carbon-intensive paradigms and entrench inequalities or reduce quality of life more broadly.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in Georgia’s economy. SMEs provide more than 67% of employment and about 62% of gross value added. Although the environmental footprint of individual SMEs may be low, their aggregate impact in many respects exceeds that of large businesses.
Commercial banks have an important role to play in providing access to green finance, particularly for SMEs. This report reviews the experience with green lending in the SME sector in Georgia. The analysis identifies the main challenges with lending to SMEs for green projects and discusses possible solutions. The report, in particular, looks at the role of the government and the policy instruments it can use to stimulate higher demand for green lending in the SME sector.
This report provides a case study for the development of sustainable energy lending in Ukraine. It reviews the macro-economic and political context for green investments in Ukraine, before looking in more detail at the role and capacity of the banking sector. The study is part of a wider OECD project promoting access to private finance for green investments in the EU Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries, and follows on from a regional assessment undertaken in 2015. This work forms part of the “Greening Economies in the European Union’s Eastern Neighbourhood” (EaP GREEN) programme, which aims to support the six Eastern Partnership countries to move towards a green economy by decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation and resource depletion.
This report presents findings from a survey on green finance conducted among 1 000 households in the Kyrgyz Republic (Kyrgyzstan) in 2019. Although green finance is an emerging trend, knowledge about the appetite for green financial products and services in Kyrgyzstan is almost inexistent. The OECD prepared the household survey to close this gap in evidence. The research identified needs and demand from existing and potential clients of Kyrgyz financial institutions for financial instruments, including those that promote sustainable development. This will help commercial banks, policy makers and central bankers design more targeted interventions to increase access to and use of financial products and services, including green finance, in Kyrgyzstan.
Climate change is an increasing concern across the world. In 1997, a number of countries, including most OECD countries, agreed the Kyoto Protocol, which sets targets for future emissions of greenhouse gases that drive climate change. But the Kyoto Protocol left many decisions to be made, and while these are being discussed the clock ticks and the date for meeting the targets draws closer. Uncertainties are even larger as to policy requirements over the longer term. The Kyoto targets in themselves will do little to avert climate change but are best seen as a first step towards ambitious worldwide action. This puts the focus on how to achieve worldwide consensus for taking action and the economic impacts such action may have. Whatever action is taken, and on the basis of available scientific evidence, some climate change may take place in any case, raising questions about its impacts and how best to adjust.
What are the main outstanding issues concerning the Kyoto Protocol? What will it cost to implement the Protocol? How can it be done so as to minimise costs? How could economic burdens be shared among countries so as to achieve broad consensus for global action? What will be the impact of such climate change as may happen and how should policy be set so as to smooth adjustment? This publication presents analysis which bears on the above questions as well as others in the climate change debate. It does not purport to have the final answers, but is aimed to inform a major debate.
This report addresses the fundamental challenges that climate change poses to infrastructure owners, who face two major challenges. First, they must ensure continued asset performance under sometimes significantly modified climate conditions that may decrease the present value of their networks or increase maintenance and refurbishment costs. Second, they must build new assets in the context of changing and uncertain climate variables. This creates a risk of over- or under-specification of infrastructure design standards, potentially resulting in non-productive investments or network service degradation. This report investigates strategies that can help transport authorities contain network performance risks inherent in changing patterns of extreme weather.
Kazakhstan has recorded impressive economic growth rates since its independence, driven mainly by export of commodities and high rate of energy use. These rates are not sustainable and are generating significant air pollution, in particular from industrial stationary sources. This is putting at risk the country’s development ambitions to become one of the top global economies by 2050 and converge towards OECD living standards. Building on OECD previous analysis, this publication shows that Kazakhstan’s environmental payments (environmentally related taxes, non-compliance penalties and compensation for damage regulation) for industrial air pollutants, as currently applied, impede energy efficiency and pollution abatement with heavy-handed non-compliance responses and focus on rising revenues. They also add to the cost of doing businesses in the country with limited environmental benefit. In the spirit of the Polluter-Pays Principle, much more reforms of regulation of environmental payments are needed. This report provides guidelines for reform drawing from air pollution regulations in OECD member countries and the results of the analysis of the system in Kazakhstan carried out by the OECD in close co-operation with the Government of Kazakhstan.
The Workshop held by OECD in October 2003, in Paris, France, brought together leading experts to take stock of “the state of the art" on the economics of waste and to help select topics on which the OECD could usefully do additional work. The book comprises the Workshop papers by leading experts.
This OECD Emission Scenario Document (ESD) provides information on the sources, use patterns, and potential release pathways of chemicals used in the adhesive formulation industry. The document presents standard approaches for estimating the environmental releases of and occupational exposures to additives and components used in adhesive formulations. These approaches are intended to provide conservative, screening-level
estimates resulting in release and exposure amounts that are likely to be higher, or at least higher than average, than amounts that might actually occur in the real world setting.
The number of corporations announcing clean electricity pledges has increased substantially in recent years, with many companies setting specific goals to meet some or all of their electricity demand with clean supply. These goals can support new capacity in clean generation, helping to boost overall shares in power systems. Increasingly, clean electricity goals can be specified in different ways; this can have implications for the clean technologies procured, the amount and location of procurement, and the resulting emissions reduction. In some regions, corporates have a range of options to choose from when purchasing clean electricity; in other regions, legal and regulatory barriers still constrain engagement in corporate procurement.
This report examines the options available and the ways in which they contribute to decarbonisation and, ultimately, net zero electricity goals. Using the IEA’s regional power system models for India and Indonesia, the report applies quantitative analysis to examine the implications of different procurement strategies for emissions reduction, procurement costs and technology deployment. A key finding is that when companies set more granular goals – such as matching their electricity demand hourly (rather than annually as has been the dominant practice) – it can stimulate deployment of the wider portfolio of flexible technologies needed for net zero transitions in the power sector.
The report aims to guide corporates in choosing impactful ways to procure clean electricity. It also highlights the roles of policy makers, regulators, system operators and network owners and operators in increasing the availability and impact of corporate procurement options. The final chapter offers targeted recommendations for different stakeholder groups.
Aquaculture now provides more than 50% of the global supply of fisheries products for direct human consumption. This conference proceedings addresses key policy challenges of the aquaculture sector. Policy makers, academics, industry representatives, NGOs and international organisations gathered to discuss the critical economic, environmental and social aspects of aquaculture. This publication presents a selection of key issues covered by the workshop and includes a large number of country case studies, which provide specific examples of national approaches to aquaculture management.
Africa’s Development Dynamics uses lessons from Central, East, North, Southern and West Africa to develop policy recommendations and share good practices. Drawing on the most recent statistics, the analysis of development dynamics aims to assist African leaders in reaching the targets of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 at all levels: continental, regional, national and local.
The 2022 edition explores how developing regional value chains can help African countries rebound from the socio-economic shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic and accelerate productive transformation. It targets policy areas where private and public actors can support regional value chains when operationalising the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). African firms can harness digital innovations to reduce production costs, and governments can design policies for skills development, public procurement and foreign investment to strengthen industrial linkages. Two continental chapters examine related African initiatives and global trends. Five chapters tailor policy recommendations to specific value chains in each region.
Africa’s Development Dynamics feeds into a policy debate between governments, citizens, entrepreneurs and researchers. It proposes a new collaboration between countries and regions, focusing on mutual learning and the preservation of common goods. This report results from a partnership between the African Union Commission and the OECD Development Centre.
Africa’s Development Dynamics uses lessons from Central, East, North, Southern and West Africa to develop policy recommendations and share good practices across the continent. Drawing on the most recent statistics, the analysis of development dynamics aims to assist African leaders in reaching the targets of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 at all levels: continental, regional, national and local.
This edition explores how Africa can attract investments that offer the best balance between economic, social and environmental objectives. Its fresh data and analysis aim to help policy makers improve risk assessments, strengthen African-led partnerships, and accelerate regional integration in ways that increase sustainable investments. Two continental chapters examine Africa’s investment landscape and related policy priorities. Five regional chapters offer tailored recommendations in strategic areas including natural ecosystems, renewable energy, climate finance and agri-food value chains.
Africa’s Development Dynamics feeds into a policy debate between the African Union’s governments, citizens, entrepreneurs and researchers. It proposes a new collaboration between countries and regions, focusing on mutual learning and the preservation of common goods. This report results from a partnership between the African Union Commission and the OECD Development Centre.