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Society’s dependence on space infrastructure is at a critical juncture. Public and private actors worldwide are planning to launch tens of thousands of satellites into Earth’s orbit in the next five years. This will greatly expand and enrich the use of space resources, but it will also result in more crowded orbits and greater risk of damage from satellite collision and space debris. As satellite launches continue to multiply and concerns grow, the long-term sustainability of space-based infrastructure on orbit and beyond is set to emerge as an increasingly important space policy issue of the 21st century. This publication takes stock of the growing socio-economic dependence of our modern societies on space assets, and the general threats to space-based infrastructure from debris in particular. Notably, it provides fresh insights into the value of space-based infrastructure and the potential costs generated by space debris, drawing on new academic research developed especially for the OECD project on the economics of space sustainability.

This report evaluates strategies to improve the efficiency with which environmental resources are used to meet human needs. Many firms in OECD countries have developed strategies that involve:
- developing goals to reduce resource use and pollutant release while improving customer service;
- working towards the goals through innovation in technology, practices, and ways of thinking; and
- designing indicators to monitor progress.
Similar approaches have been used outside business, for example by governments, communities and groups of households. Such strategies have achieved improvements in material and energy efficiency in the region of 10% to 40%. The full potential for improving eco-efficiency is much greater, but it is only likely to be achieved through coherent government policies for sustainable development. The report identifies policies that can encourage innovation by firms and communities, and provide an economy-wide framework of economic and regulatory incentives for the adoption of more sustainable patterns of production and consumption.

Climate change poses a serious challenge to social and economic development. This report provides a critical assessment of adaptation costs and benefits in key climate sensitive sectors, as well as at national and global levels. It also moves the discussion beyond cost estimation to the potential and limits of economic and policy instruments - including insurance and risk sharing, environmental markets and pricing, and public private partnerships - that can be used to motivate adaptation actions.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), a policy approach in which the responsibility of the waste from a consumer good is extended back up to the producer of the good, is developing and expanding in OECD countries.  Governments find that these schemes can provide a new and flexible approach to reduce the upward trend of waste from consumer products. To address these issues, OECD organised a workshop in December 2002, which was hosted by the Japanese Ministry of Environment, in Tokyo. This book contains selected papers presented at this workshop.

This book summarises the environmental implications of globalisation (both positive and negative) in terms of governance (the changing role of the nation-state and other institutions), competitiveness, foreign investments (pollution havens/industrial migration), sectoral economic activities (energy, transport, agriculture), technological change, and corporate environmental strategies.

The Going for Growth report, updated biennially, looks at structural reforms in policy areas that have been identified as priorities to boost incomes in OECD countries and selected non-OECD economies (Argentina, Brazil, the People’s Republic of China, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, the Russian Federation and South Africa). The selection of priorities and monitoring of reform actions are supported by internationally comparable indicators that enable countries to assess their economic performance and structural policies in a wide range of areas. In addition to detailed policy recommendations to address the priorities, as well as a follow-up on actions taken in the recent years, the report includes individual country notes and, since 2017, a focus on inclusive growth. The 2019 report also includes a special chapter on reform packages that boost growth while ensuring environmental sustainability, a new extension of the Going for Growth framework.

Going for Growth 2021 identifies country-specific structural policy priorities for the recovery across OECD and key non-member countries (Argentina, Brazil, The People’s Republic of China, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia and South Africa). It frames the main policy challenges of the current juncture along three main areas: building resilience; facilitating reallocation and boosting productivity growth for all; and supporting people in transition. The publication also highlights priorities in areas necessitating increased international cooperation in order to manage cross border spillovers: health, climate change, trade and taxation challenges of digital economies.

The Going for Growth report, updated biennially, looks at structural reforms in policy areas that have been identified as priorities to boost growth in OECD and selected non-OECD countries. The selection of priorities is supported by internationally comparable indicators that enable countries to assess their economic performance and structural policies in a wide range of areas. For this edition, Going for Growth advises on country-specific structural policy priorities to strengthen growth fundamentals and pave the way for successful green and digital transitions. Four key policy areas are identified: enhancing the design of social support programs; lifting potential growth by removing obstacles to effective resource utilisation; securing faster progress towards decarbonization; making the digital transformation a driver of productivity growth.

Economic textbooks predict that taxes and emission trading systems are the cheapest way for societies to reduce emissions of CO2. This book shows that this is also the case in the real world. It estimates the costs to society of reducing CO2 emissions in 15 countries using a broad range of policy instruments in 5 of the sectors that generate most emissions: electricity generation, road transport, pulp & paper and cement, as well as households’ domestic energy use. It finds wide variations in the costs of abating each tonne of CO2 within and among countries, as well as in the sectors examined and across different types of policy instruments. Market-based approaches like taxes and trading systems consistently reduced CO2 at a lower cost than other instruments. Capital subsidies and feed-in tariffs were among the most expensive ways of reducing emissions.

To tackle climate change, CO2 emissions need to be cut. Pricing carbon is one of the most effective and lowest-cost ways of inducing such cuts. This report presents the first full analysis of the use of carbon pricing on energy in 41 OECD and G20 economies, covering 80% of global energy use and of CO2 emissions. The analysis takes a comprehensive view of carbon prices, including specific taxes on energy use, carbon taxes and tradable emission permit prices. It shows the entire distribution of effective carbon rates by country and the composition of effective carbon rates by six economic sectors within each country. Carbon prices are seen to be often very low, but some countries price significant shares of their carbon emissions. The ‘carbon pricing gap’, a synthetic indicator showing the extent to which effective carbon rates fall short of pricing emissions at EUR 30 per tonne, the low-end estimate of the cost of carbon used in this study, sheds light on potential ways of strengthening carbon pricing.

Carbon pricing very effectively encourages the shift of production and consumption choices towards low and zero carbon options that is required to limit climate change. Are countries using this tool to its full potential? This report measures the pricing of CO₂-emissions from energy use in 44 OECD and G20 countries, covering around 80% of world emissions. The analysis takes a comprehensive view of carbon prices, including fuel excise taxes, carbon taxes and tradable emission permit prices. The "carbon pricing score" measures how close the 44 countries, together as well as individually, are to the goal of pricing all energy related carbon emissions at current and forward-looking benchmark values for carbon costs. The report highlights the structure of effective carbon rates across countries and sectors in 2018 and discusses change compared to 2012 and 2015. It also provides an outlook on recent trends in emissions trading in China and the European Union.

Successfully transitioning to net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions requires effective mitigation policy packages, which include carbon pricing measures: a cost-effective policy instrument that not only reduces emissions but also generates revenue to support the transition. This fourth edition of Effective Carbon Rates provides an overview of the carbon pricing landscape, examining fuel excise taxes, carbon taxes, and emissions trading systems (ETSs) through 2021, with updates on developments until 2023. The policy mechanisms examined directly impact the cost of emitting GHGs, influencing shifts in production, consumption, and investment towards low- or zero-carbon options. The analysis covers 72 countries which together account for approximately 80% of global GHG emissions. The report focuses on developments in ETSs and transport fuel taxes amidst the energy crisis and provides comprehensive and comparable data on the current status of GHG emissions pricing that can assist policymakers in identifying priorities and refining carbon mitigation strategies.

The 21st Century has so far witnessed a host of large-scale disasters in various parts of the world including: windstorms, flooding, new diseases infesting both humans and animals, terrorist attacks and major disruptions to critical infrastructures. It is not just the nature of major risks that seems to be changing, but also the context in which risks are evolving as well as society’s capacity to manage them.  This book explores the implications of these developments for economy and society in the 21st century, focussing in particular on the potentially significant increase in the vulnerability of major systems.  It concentrates on five large risk clusters: natural disasters, technological accidents, infectious diseases, food safety and terrorism, identifies the challenges facing OECD countries and sets out recommendations for governments and the private sector as to how the management of emerging systemic risks might be improved.

This document intends to prioritise the sectors of the chemical industry for which more refined ESDs should be developed, provides key concepts and tools which are instrumental in the production of ESDs for the chemical industry such as life cycle stages, factors influencing emissions and release quantification methods. This document will be a starting point for the development of ESDs for the chemical industry.