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The Dutch food, agriculture and horticulture sector is innovative and export oriented, with high value-added along the food chain and significant world export shares for many products. Continuous adoption of innovation has permitted to reach high levels of productivity and sustained productivity growth, in particular at the farm level, in a context of increasing environmental regulatory constraints. The challenge is whether marginal improvements in current technologies and know-how will be enough to pursue current rates of productivity growth – sustainably – and whether the innovation system will be able to generate the new ideas that are needed to face future challenges, including those linked to climate change.

Australia’s agriculture and food industries are well placed to contribute to the economy’s future growth given the robust prospects of global food demand and the continuing high international competitiveness of these sectors. There are, however, important challenges that call for new ways to exploit agricultural resources and human capital. The decade-long decline in agricultural productivity growth needs to be overcome, coupled with the need to accommodate uncertainties about the impacts of climate change and to respond to societal demands in the areas of sustainable development and animal welfare. The agro-food sector also needs to absorb exchange-rate and cost pressures created by the mining boom. To tap additional opportunities of the higher value food segments, Australian agri-businesses need new knowledge and capabilities to seize demand signals and value opportunities, particularly from more affluent consumers in Asian markets.

The Canadian food and agriculture sector is for the most part competitive and export-oriented: although challenges and opportunities vary significantly between regions, primary agriculture benefits from an abundance of natural resources and faces limited environmental constraints. Negative environmental impacts of agriculture relate mainly to local water pollution by agricultural nutrients. Productivity growth, resulting from innovation and structural change, has driven production and income growth without significantly increasing pressure on resource use. Nonetheless, the capacity to innovate is crucial to take advantage of the growing and changing demand for food and agricultural products at the global level.

Agriculture and the agro-processing sector in Brazil have shown impressive growth over the past two decades. This has largely been driven by productivity improvements and structural adjustment resulting from broad economic reforms, as well as new technologies developed by agricultural science. Government policy and industry initiatives are increasingly focused on the sustainability of agricultural development.

This OECD Emission Scenario Document (ESD) provides information on the sources, use patterns, and release pathways of chemicals used in industrial cleaning. This document provides a method of estimating emission quantity in the absence of sufficient empirical data to support an analysis of the substitution of one industrial cleaner for another. Among scenarios that are highly likely to occur (as determined by analysing trends in the substitution of cleaning chemicals), possible combinations of currently used substances and their substitutes are focused. Changes in operating conditions and cleaning equipment due to the use of substitute materials are also examined.

This Emission Scenario Document (ESD) is intended to provide information to be used for risk
assessment for active substances and products used as biocidal (i.e. non agricultural) insecticides, acaricides and products to control other arthropods (in the EU, product type 18 [PT18] c).

The objective of OECD Test Guidelines for the pesticide residue chemistry is to assess pesticide exposure by identifying these residues in food or animal feedstuffs for purposes of dietary risk assessment and setting Maximum Residue Levels. They have been developed and are based on guidelines in use for many years in OECD countries and by the Food and Agriculture Organisation. Because of the unique nature of each study, the pesticide expected use, and the particular methods needed to elucidate the metabolic pathway for each chemical, the description of the test method cannot be as prescriptive as usually required for other OECD Test Guidelines. Pesticide residue studies are complex; guidelines cannot specify all parameters in advance, but each study must be designed individually. Given these characteristics, the guidelines in Part A of Section 5 include elements that differ from those in the other sections (1-4) of the OECD Guidelines for the Testing of Chemicals.

Illegal trade in environmentally sensitive goods, such as threatened wildlife, timber, hazardous waste, and ozone-depleting substances, has been a long-standing issue in the international trade and environment agenda.  The nature of such illegal trade makes it difficult to fully understand its extent and impact on the environment.  Developing effective policies to reduce illegal trade requires a clear understanding of what drives this trade and the circumstances under which it thrives.  In this report, evidence-based on customs data and information from licensing schemes is used to document the scale of illegal trade, as well as the economic and environmental impacts of such trade.  National and international policies have an important role to play in regulating  and reducing illegal trade and the report highlights a range of measures that can be taken at both levels.

Inducing environmental innovation is a significant challenge to policy-makers. Efforts to design public policies that address these issues are motivated by the fact that innovations can allow for improved environmental quality at lower cost. However, the relationship between environmental policy and technological innovation remains an area in which empirical evidence is scant.  Increased attention should be paid to the design characteristics of public policies that are likely to affect the ‘type’ of innovation induced.  The work presented in this book is brought together in five substantive chapters: environmental policy design characteristics and their role in inducing innovation, the role of public policies (including multilateral agreements) in encouraging transfer of environmental technologies, followed by three ‘sectoral’ studies of innovation in alternative fuel vehicles, solid waste management and recycling, and green (sustainable) chemistry. While particular focus has been placed on the role of environmental policy in bringing about the innovation documented, it is recognised that other factors play a key role in inducing innovation which has positive environmental implications.     

This report examines innovative mechanisms that can help attract new financial resources into water and sanitation services. In particular, it focuses on mobilising market-based repayable financing (such as loans, bonds and equity) as a way of bridging the financial gap to meet the water-related Millennium Development Goals and other crucial sector objectives. The Camdessus and Gurría reports, published seven and four years ago, respectively, formulated a number of recommendations in this area. This report examines the extent to which these recommendations have been implemented. It looks at the rapidly evolving global context and to the ongoing financial and economic crisis, and considers how innovation in financing for the water sector may need to adapt.

What are the impacts on environmental effectiveness and economic efficiency of using an “instrument mix”, rather than a single instrument, to address a given environmental problem? What are the main arguments for using such instrument mixes, and are the instrument mixes currently in use actually well designed in response to these arguments? These are the main questions addressed in this report, which is based on a series of in-depth case studies. The case studies analyse instrument mixes applied in OECD countries to address household waste, non-point sources of water pollution in agriculture, residential energy efficiency, regional air pollution and emissions to air of mercury.

Science and Technology is a key driver of economic growth, and it may also help provide answers for managing resources and reducing pollution, addressing climate change and preserving biodiversity, as well as  reducing disease and safeguarding health and well-being, while maintaining the general quality of life. This publication provides the proceedings of an international workshop, held in South Africa, intended to address how international co-operation in science and technology can further the three inter-related aspects (economic, social and environmental) of the development process. The workshop focused on good practices in international S&T partnerships, specifically in the areas of water and energy.