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This report reviews trends and progress on climate change mitigation policies in 34 OECD countries and 10 partner economies (Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Russian Federation and South Africa), as well as in the European Union. Together, these countries account for over 80% of global GHG emissions. It covers three areas: 1) mitigation targets and goals, 2) carbon pricing instruments (such as energy and carbon taxation, emissions trading systems, as well as support for fossil fuels) and 3) key domestic policy settings in the energy and other sectors (including renewable energy, power generation and transport, innovation and R&D, and mitigation policies in agriculture, forestry, industry and waste sectors). The report is accompanied by an online country profiles tool containing more detailed information.
Climate change is a fact of life. We need to act urgently if we are to avoid an irreversible build-up of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and global warming at a potentially huge cost to the economy and society worldwide. OECD analysis suggests that if we act now, we have 10 to 15 years’ “breathing space” during which action is possible at a relatively modest cost. But every year of delay reduces this breathing space, while requiring ever more stringent measures to make a difference. Current financial turmoil is not a reason to delay. Indeed, its macroeconomic consequences will be resolved in a relatively short time, after which growth will resume, while the consequences of inaction on global warming will continue to grow more and more costly over time...
Climate change is giving rise to diverse risks, ranging from changing incidences of tropical diseases to increased risks of drought, varying widely in their potential severity, frequency and predictability. Governments must integrate the management of these climate risks into policy making if they are to successfully adapt to a changing climate. Economic analysis has a vital role to play in supporting these efforts, by identifying costs and benefits and supporting decision-making for an uncertain future. However, this analysis needs to be adapted to the institutions, policies and climate risks in a given country. Building on the experience of OECD countries, this report sets out how the latest economic evidence and tools can enable better policy making for adaptation.
Climate change is likely to have significant impacts on the agricultural sector to which farmers will have to adapt. While agriculture is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, it is also a source of carbon storage in soils. This report examines the economic and policy issues related to the impacts of climate change on agriculture and adaptation responses and to the mitigation of greenhouse gases from agriculture. It outlines research undertaken and underway in other national and international research agencies. It also highlights some of the knowledge gaps on the impacts of climate change on food production and the uncertainties of those impacts in a global context that warrant further research efforts. In particular, the report analyses marginal abatement cost curves, which show the relative costs of achieving reductions in greenhouse gas emission through the implementation of different actions in the agricultural sector. The aim of the report is to help guide policy makers in the design of policies to address climate change issues in agriculture.
Undertaken jointly with United Nations Environment Programme, the report analyses policies and issues related to climate change adaptation and mitigation in the tourism sector. It provides policy recommendations, with the objective to identify priority areas to be included in a framework for action in the area of climate change and tourism. A review of the state of policy-making on this important issue clearly indicates that greater efforts could be made by countries to understand the likely impacts of climate change on tourism; there is a low awareness of the tourism sector's climate change mitigation and adaptation needs; and that current policy, with few exceptions, is inadequate to the scale of the challenge, both on mitigation and adaptation.
This report assesses the implications of climate change on winter tourism and natural hazards management in the European Alps, with a particular focus on how these activities can adapt to climate change. The report presents the first systematic cross-country analysis of the effects of climate change on snow-reliability in the European Alps. It also examines the implications of climate change for a range of natural hazards prevalent in the Alps, with a particular focus on frameworks and financial mechanisms to manage natural hazards in three countries: France, Switzerland and Austria. Technological and behavioural adaptation measures, together with institutional structures and risk transfer mechanisms, are also reviewed.
This report presents OECD estimates of annual volumes of climate finance provided and mobilised by developed countries for developing countries in 2013-17. These estimates include bilateral and multilateral public finance, official-supported export credits and mobilised private finance. The underpinning accounting framework is consistent with the one used by the OECD in 2015 to produce estimates of climate finance for the years 2013-14, as well as that used in 2016 to produce 2020 climate finance projections. Furthermore, it is also consistent with the outcome of the UNFCCC COP24 on modalities for the accounting of financial resources provided and mobilised through public interventions.
This report is an update with 2018 figures to the previous publication Climate Finance Provided and Mobilised by Developed Countries in 2013-17. It provides insights on the evolution of the following four components of climate finance over the period of 2013-2018: bilateral public climate finance, multilateral climate finance (attributed to developed countries), climate-related officially supported export credits, and private finance mobilised by developed countries public finance interventions. Building on past work, the report deepens the analysis by providing not only aggregate figures but also a further breakdown in terms of recipients and characteristics of climate finance commitments.
This report presents aggregate trends of annual climate finance provided and mobilised by developed countries for developing countries for the period 2013-2021. It includes breakdowns by climate theme, sector, financial instrument and recipient country grouping for the period 2016-2021. The report also provides key recommendations for international providers to increase financing towards adaptation and more effectively mobilise private finance for climate action, which are both important policy priorities and current bottlenecks. The recommendations in this report draw from two OECD publications on scaling up private climate finance and adaptation finance.
This report provides disaggregated data analysis of climate finance provided and mobilised in 2016-2020 across climate finance components, themes, sectors, and financial instruments. It also explores key trends and provides insight relating to the distribution and concentration of climate finance provided and mobilised across different developing country characteristics and groupings. The concluding chapter of the report provides further insights on the impacts and effectiveness of climate finance, as well as meaningful mitigation action and transparency on implementation. The findings complement the OECD report Aggregate Trends of Climate Finance Provided and Mobilised by Developed Countries in 2013-2020.
This report presents aggregate trends of annual climate finance provided and mobilised by developed countries for developing countries for the period 2013-19. The trends are presented by finance source, climate theme and sector, geography, and financial instrument. As this report is intended as a short technical update to the previously published 2013-18 figures, the information provided remains at an aggregate level. An expanded and disaggregated analysis will be conducted in 2022 for climate finance in 2019 and 2020, once data for 2020 is available.
In 2009 developed countries committed to jointly mobilise USD 100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020 for climate action in developing countries. This report provides a status check on the level of climate finance mobilised by developed countries in 2013 and 2014, five years after this initial commitment was made at COP15 in Copenhagen. It shows that there has been significant progress in meeting this goal.
The report aims to be transparent and rigorous in its assessment of the available data and underlying assumptions and methodologies, within the constraints of an aggregate reporting exercise. While methodological approaches and data collection efforts to support estimates such as this one are improving, there nevertheless remains significant work to be done to arrive at more complete and accurate estimates in the future.
This report provides a broad and evidence-based analytical perspective of the debate around the possible role of a Border Carbon Adjustment (BCA) to deal with climate change. The new context of divergent climate ambition has led to a resurgence of interest in BCAs. The paper provides an overview of different policy instruments that can limit carbon leakage, with a particular focus on the BCA option, and offers a technical review of the literature and of the legal specificities around BCA as well as of alternative instruments. The report also analyses the issue of fragmented climate policies in the broader perspective of the trade-climate nexus and discusses how other policy measures – especially those related to trade – can help support climate objectives (for example, reducing the existing barriers to trade in environmental goods, and removing environmentally harmful and trade distortive subsidies).
Growing climate change is putting global energy security at risk, threatening the reliable supply of fuels and resources. Climate change directly affects every aspect of the energy system, from the extraction, processing and transport of fuels and minerals, to the potential, efficiency and reliability of power generation, to the physical resilience of energy infrastructure, as well as impacting energy demand patterns. According to most scenarios, climate change disruptions are likely to increase in magnitude in the coming decades. A comprehensive understanding of climate effects on energy supply and demand is crucial to strengthening the resilience of energy systems.
This report provides a comprehensive overview of the climate impacts and hazards facing energy systems, with projections up to the end of the 21st century. It also presents effective measures for energy suppliers, consumers and public authorities to enhance climate resilience, with cost-benefit analysis proving that investments in climate resilience bring long-term benefits.
Climate-related disasters have inflicted increasingly high losses on developing countries, and with climate change, these losses are likely to worsen. Improving country resilience against climate risks is therefore vital for achieving poverty reduction and economic development goals.
This report discusses the current state of knowledge on how to build climate resilience in developing countries. It argues that climate-resilient development requires moving beyond the climate-proofing of existing development pathways, to consider economic development objectives and resilience priorities in parallel. Achieving this will require political vision and a clear understanding of the relation between climate and development, as well as an adapted institutional set-up, financing arrangements, and progress monitoring and evaluation. The report also discusses two priorities for climate-resilient development: disaster risk management and the involvement of the private sector.
The report builds on a growing volume of country experiences on building climate resilience into national development planning. Two country case studies, Ethiopia and Colombia, are discussed in detail.
This report reviews evidence that overshooting 1.5°C may push the earth over several tipping points, leading to irreversible and severe changes in the climate system. If triggered, tipping point impacts will rapidly cascade through socio-economic and ecological systems, leading to severe effects on human and natural systems and imposing important challenges for human adaptation. Of particular concern are the likely collapse of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets and the abrupt melting of permafrost grounds in the Arctic, which would result in additional sea-level rise and greenhouse gas releases, leading to more warming.
Based on the most recent science and consultations with renowned experts, Climate Tipping Points: Insights for Effective Policy Action argues that it is no longer appropriate to consider the risk of crossing tipping points as low-probability. Overshooting 1.5°C may likely lead to irreversible and severe impacts, which must be avoided, heightening the urgency to drastically reduce emissions within this decade. The report calls for a shift in how tipping points are treated in climate policy today and provides recommendations on how climate risk management strategies can better reflect the risks of tipping points in the areas of mitigation, adaptation and technological innovation.
Across the OECD, farmers are voluntarily forming community-based associations to help achieve a more sustainable agriculture. What are the reasons behind this phenomenon? How can it be encouraged? To what extent can such group-based voluntary action substitute for, or complement, existing agri-environmental policy measures? In attempting to answer these questions the study looks at the recent development of landcare groups in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and New Zealand. It also identifies the conditions under which such groups seem to work most effectively, and the types of issues for which they are best suited.
The analysis of the different national experiences leads to a number of general observations and specific policy recommendations. In so doing, the study provides a new perspective on the role of voluntary, collective action in finding local solutions to local environmental issues.
This volume is a comprehensive reference book on current trends in the world coal market and long-term prospects to 2010. It contains an in-depth analysis of the 1999 international coal market covering prices, demand, trade, supply and production capacity, as well as over 475 pages of country specific statistics on OECD and key non-OECD coal producing and consuming countries. In addition to country specific statistics, Coal Information has up-to-date data on coal-fired power stations in coal consuming countries and coal ports in exporting and importing countries. The book also contains a summary of climate change policies, CO2 emission limitation proposals and other environmental policies as they affect coal consumption; including particulate, sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxide emission limits for existing and new coal-fired boilers in OECD countries. Coal Information is one of a series of annual IEA statistical publications on major energy sources; other reports are Electricity Information, Oil Information and Natural Gas Information.
Coal and its emissions are a critical issue as the world contends with both the global energy crisis and the climate crisis. This report presents pragmatic, real-world guidance on how policymakers can achieve a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from coal without harming economies or energy security, outlining measures to finance energy transitions and address their social and employment aspects. It also explores the options for the power sector and other parts of the economy where coal plays a notable role. It examines a range of policy and technology areas, including the potential for carbon capture, utilisation and storage. And it addresses investment and financing needs, taking into account the importance of ensuring reliable and affordable energy supplies and of tackling the social consequences of change.
This OECD Emission Scenario Document (ESD) is intended to provide information on the
sources, use patterns and release pathways of chemicals used in the coatings industry (paints,
lacquers and varnishes), to assist in the estimation of releases of chemicals into the environment.