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As the world's premier forum for international economic co-operation, the G20 plays a critical role in helping to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Based on robust evidence and available data, this report examines how the G20's contributions to the global goals across key sectors are already making a difference, while also suggesting where it could go further in leading by example to support the global goals.
Collectively, G20 members account for around 85% of global gross domestic product, 75% of world trade and 80% of global carbon dioxide emissions – to name just a few areas of the G20's influence. This report, commissioned by the Government of Japan in support of its 2019 G20 Presidency, takes stock of the G20's progress to date against its Action Plan on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Sustainable development depends on maintaining long-term economic, social, and environmental capital. In failing to make the best use of their female populations, most countries are underinvesting in the human capital needed to assure sustainabilitly. This market and systems failure is discussed in this publication in terms of gender constraints, which are based on the socially-constructed and historically developed roles of men and women. It also illuminates how female contributions can be better realized at present and how strategies can be developed for meeting the needs of future generations. This report is a contribution by the OECD to the UN Commission on Sustainable Development and its cross-cutting work on gender.
Gender equality and environmental goals are mutually reinforcing, with slow progress on environmental actions affecting the achievement of gender equality, and vice versa. Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires targeted and coherent actions. However, complementarities and trade-offs between gender equality and environmental sustainability are scarcely documented within the SDG framework. Based on the SDG framework, this report provides an overview of the gender-environment nexus, looking into data and evidence gaps, economic and well-being benefits, and governance and justice aspects. It examines nine environment-related SDGs (2, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12 and 15) through a gender-environment lens, using available data, case studies, surveys and other evidence. It shows that women around the world are disproportionately affected by climate change, deforestation, land degradation, desertification, growing water scarcity and inadequate sanitation, with gender inequalities further exacerbated by COVID-19. The report concludes that gender-responsiveness in areas such as land, water, energy and transport management, amongst others, would allow for more sustainable and inclusive economic development, and increased well-being for all. Recognising the multiple dimensions of and interactions between gender equality and the environment, it proposes an integrated policy framework, taking into account both inclusive growth and environmental considerations at local, national and international levels.
This report presents global projections of materials use and their environmental consequences, providing a quantitative outlook to 2060 at the global, sectoral and regional levels for 61 different materials (biomass resources, fossil fuels, metals and non-metallic minerals). It explains the economic drivers determining the decoupling of economic growth and materials use, and assesses how the projected shifts in sectoral and regional economic activity influence the use of different materials. The projections include both primary and secondary materials, which provides a deeper understanding of what drives the synergies and trade-offs between extraction and recycling.
The report projects a doubling of global primary materials use between today and 2060. Population and converging per capita income growth drive the growth in materials use. However, structural change, especially in non-OECD countries, and technology improvements partially dampen that growth. Metals and non-metallic minerals are projected to grow more rapidly than other types of materials.
The financing for sustainable development agenda promises to bring together more actors than ever before – from businesses, governments, philanthropists, and remitting households – to address the world’s most pressing problems and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
Yet, in spite of this promise, the financing for sustainable development gap is growing. While needs continue to increase, resources available to developing countries have been constrained and in some cases even declining, as illustrated by the recent drop in foreign direct investments. New financial instruments and interactions have yet to mobilise much-needed new resources in sufficient volumes. And despite significant advances, we do not yet fully understand the opportunities and risks faced by the various actors in this complex new global financing system.
This report sounds a wake-up call. To fulfil the commitments of the 2030 Agenda, and lift hundreds of millions of people out of extreme poverty, the international community needs to maximise the development footprint of existing and future resources, thereby “shifting the trillions” towards the SDGs. The first in a series, this report charts a forward path for the changes required in measurement, policies, and operations to achieve these ambitious objectives.
The global community is far from achieving its objective of ending plastic pollution, unless more stringent and co-ordinated policies are implemented. A key question is: What are the plausible scenarios for the evolution of plastics in the absence of additional measures and, as well, with scaled-up policy action? The Global Plastics Outlook: Policy Scenarios to 2060 provides such a forward-looking perspective. The report presents a set of coherent projections on plastics to 2060, including plastics use, waste as well as the environmental impacts linked to plastics, especially leakage to the environment. Such an outlook on plastics can help policy makers understand the scale of the challenge to transition to a more sustainable and circular use of plastics and the need for additional policy action. By identifying two policy packages to bend the plastic curve, the Outlook allows for a better understanding of the environmental benefits and economic consequences of adopting stringent policies. This second report is a follow-up to the first report – Global Plastics Outlook: Economic Drivers, Environmental Impacts and Policy Options – which quantified current trends in plastics use, waste generation and leakage, as well as identified four policy levers to curb the environmental impacts of plastics.
While plastics are extremely useful materials for modern society, plastics production and waste generation continue to increase with worsening environmental impacts despite international, national and local policy responses, as well as industry commitments. The urgent need to make the lifecycle of plastics more circular calls for an expansion of national policies and improved international co-operation to mitigate environmental impacts all along the value chain.
The first of two reports, this Outlook intends to inform and support policy efforts to combat plastic leakage. The report quantifies the current production, use, disposal and key environmental impacts throughout the entire plastics lifecycle and identifies opportunities for reducing the negative externalities. It also investigates how plastics use and waste have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic across sectors and regions. The Outlook identifies four key levers for bending the plastics curve: stronger support for recycled (secondary) plastics markets; policies to boost technological innovation in plastics; more ambitious domestic policy measures; and greater international co-operation.
National Urban Policy (NUP) is a key instrument to achieve sustainable urban development in a shared responsibility across countries, regions and cities. The scale and urgency of the current urban challenges has given prominence to NUPs. The COVID-19 crisis has amplified the potential of NUPs in shaping more resilient, green and inclusive cities as part of countries recovery packages.
This report reviews NUPs of 162 countries across the globe. Building on the first edition launched in 2018, the report serves as a critical source of information and analysis for policymakers and urban professionals, as it establishes the foundation for understanding how and in what forms NUPs have been developed, implemented and monitored globally. The overarching objective of the report is to assist national governments in advancing their NUP processes, especially in creating a stronger link between NUPs and urban-related global agendas, such as the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda, and in mainstreaming climate action into NUPs. The report is a co-creation of the OECD, UN-Habitat and Cities Alliance, as a key outcome of the National Urban Policy Programme, a global partnership launched in 2016 at the Habitat III Conference.
Globalisation is binding countries into closer economic -- and environmental -- interdependence through intensified trade and investment linkages and rapid advances in technology. It is also changing the context of environmental management at national, regional and global levels and is creating new challenges to, and opportunities for, the public and private sectors in the transition to sustainable development. This volume presents papers on these subjects by leading experts from OECD Member countries, Asia and Latin America. The papers were presented at the OECD Workshop on Globalisation and the Environment: New Challenges to the Public and Private Sectors.
What impact has globalisation had on transport? And what have been the consequences for the environment? This book aims to answer these questions and more. It looks in detail at how globalisation has affected activity levels in maritime shipping, aviation, and road and rail freight, and assesses the impact that changes in activity levels have had on the environment. The book also discusses policy instruments that can be used to address negative environmental impacts, both from an economic perspective and from the point of view of international law.
Related reading
Environmental Outlook to 2030 (2008)
The Economics of Climate Change Mitigation: Policies and Options for Global Action beyond 2012 (2009)
The Global Harmonised Submission Transport Standard (GHSTS) is a standardised set of technical specifications for assembling electronic files for pesticide registration in a predefined manner. Once assembled according to the GHSTS, the dossier files can be transferred from a business to a regulatory authority and can be used in a regulatory process. GHSTS version 2.0, published in 2019, supports use for other regulated products as well as the pesticides domain and includes improvements in the lifecycle management of documents over a series of submissions for one pesticide (or other) regulatory action.
This GHSTS format specification document describes the Standard on both a conceptual and a technical level.
Critical infrastructures are the backbone of modern, interconnected economies. The disruption of key systems and essential services - such as telecommunications, energy or water supply, transportation or finance - can cause substantial economic damage. This report looks at how to boost critical infrastructure resilience in a dynamic risk landscape, and discusses policy options and governance models to promote up-front resilience investments. Based on an international survey, the report analyses the progressive shift of critical infrastructure policies from asset protection to system resilience. The findings are reflected in a proposed Policy Toolkit for the Governance of Critical Infrastructure Resilience, which can guide governments in taking a more coherent, preventive approach to protecting and sustaining essential services.
This publication unites all of the OECD documents related to Good Laboratory Practice and compliance monitoring, and, in the Annex, reproduces the three OECD Council Decisions related to the Mutual Acceptance of Data in the Assessment of Chemicals. It includes the international standards for quality of non-clinical environmental, health and safety data on chemicals and chemical products in a regulatory context—the OECD Principles of Good Laboratory Practice—and supporting Consensus and Advisory Documents on their interpretation and application. The OECD guidance documents for governments on monitoring compliance with the Good Laboratory Practice Principles are also included. This publication thus presents the state of the art on Good Laboratory Practice and compliance monitoring.
This publication presents five governmental experiments aimed at promoting sustainable development in Canada, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. These countries were selected on the basis of their diversity in terms of size and natural conditions. They also display a variety of economic, environmental and social conditions and cultural patterns. The five case studies illustrate specific institutional and decision-making efforts to adapt governance frameworks in order to respond to sustainable development challenges. The country studies are introduced by an analytical section, which focuses mainly on the way governments (at all levels) could develop integrated approaches to decision-making, on how they could ensure effective participation of civil society, and how they could improve their capacity to "take a longer-term view" - that is to design policies that remain sustainable over the longer-term.
Green budget tagging can be a useful tool in an overall approach to green budgeting. This introductory guidance was developed by the OECD under the Paris Collaborative on Green Budgeting in collaboration with institutional partners working under Helsinki Principle 4 of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action (IADB, IMF, UNDP, World Bank) and draws lessons from existing country practices. It was informed by a series of round-table events with countries implementing green budget tagging. The document aims to provide high-level guidance in relation to designing, implementing and improving green budget tagging.
Climate and environmental considerations have become pressing priorities for governments in recent years. International commitments such as the Paris Agreement, the Aichi Biodiversity Targets under the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have spurred momentum across the OECD to prioritise green objectives to policy-making processes. As these efforts require systematic considerations across all parts of government, countries have identified the budget process as playing a key role in ensuring that priorities relating to the environment and climate change are part of the policy-making process. Thus, there has been an emergence of “green budgeting” practices across the OECD.
Countries use green budgeting as a tool of budgetary policy making to provide policy makers with a clearer understanding of the environmental and climate impacts of budgeting choices, while bringing evidence together in a systematic and co-ordinated manner for more informed decision making to fulfil national and international commitments. This publication presents the findings from the first survey on green budgeting across OECD countries and provides information on the extent to which countries have the key elements of an effective approach to pursue environmental and climate priorities.
This report provides an overview of green budgeting practices across OECD countries based on the 2022 OECD Green Budgeting Survey, as well as the index methodology for the Survey. It takes stock of OECD countries’ progress in bringing climate and environmental considerations into budgeting frameworks and processes. Green budgeting involves a systematic approach across all stages of the budget process, including financial reporting and budget oversight. The growth in green budgeting in OECD countries, as shown in the report, demonstrates the key role of budget offices in ensuring that policy priorities relating to climate change and the environment are taken into account when allocating resources through the budget process.
Since the 1990’s, the countries of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) have made great progress in pursuing economic development that is also environmentally sustainable. The countries, in collaboration with the GREEN Action Task Force hosted by the OECD, has developed a number of policies aiming to improve environmental quality and social well-being, while creating opportunities for strong economic growth and decent jobs in the region.
This report was prepared as the OECD contribution to the ninth “Environment for Europe” (EfE) Conference (5-7 October 2022). In this context, this report aims to: (i) take stock of progress on policy developments towards a green economy in the EECCA countries; (ii) showcase selected contributions from of the Green Action Task Force that integrate environmental and climate considerations into development pathways of the EECCA countries, and mobilise finance for action; and (iii) provide an outlook for the future, including priority actions that the Task Force in co-operation with the EECCA countries should take to enhance the momentum for green economy transition in the region.
Within the context of sustainable development, natural resources and ecosystem services provided by the environment are essential to support economic growth social wellbeing, and human health. Inaction on key environmental challenges, such as climate change, could lead to severe economic consequences in the future. It is important that the measures governments are taking now to address the economic crisis are designed so that they support – and at least do not compromise – sustainable long-term, environmentally friendly growth in the future. This discussion paper highlights some of the measures governments are already taking to 'green' their approches to economic recovery, and some of the key issues they may wish to further consider going forward regarding the impact of these approaches on the environment.
The OECD Green Growth Strategy supports countries in fostering economic growth and development while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources and environmental services on which well-being relies. Policies that promote green growth need to be founded on a good understanding of the determinants of green growth and need to be supported with appropriate indicators to monitor progress and gauge results.
This book updates the 2011 Towards Green Growth: Monitoring progress. It presents the OECD framework for monitoring progress towards green growth and a selection of updated indicators that illustrate the progress that OECD countries have made since the 1990s.