Browse by: "S"

Unsustainable subsidies are pervasive in the industry, agriculture, transport and energy sectors of most OECD countries. They are expensive for governments and can have harmful environmental and social effects. Eliminating these supports requires comprehensive approaches which are supported by top political leadership, transparent in their potential effects on all parties, consistent over the long-term, and often accompanied by transition supports. This volume uses sectoral case studies to illustrate that achieving change in structural policies such as subsidies depends largely on good governance practices.

Subsidies are pervasive in OECD countries and are among the most powerful public policy instruments.  But they often introduce unintended consequences, such as budget deficits, pollution, unemployment and trade distortions. This report contains the proceedings of an OECD workshop on subsidy reform held in October 2005 under the auspices of the OECD programme on sustainable development.  It provides an overview of approaches for assessing subsidies and associated taxes, and looks at country experiences in reforming subsidies in the agriculture, fisheries, industry, and transport sectors.

This report assesses the Republic of Kazakhstan’s significant efforts to improve water supply and sanitation (WSS) services over the past 15 years, notably in terms of ambitious target-setting, implementation of a sound water tariff policy, and significant investment in the rehabilitation and development of relevant infrastructure. Generally speaking, the absence of updated data on WSS institutional development is a limiting factor for further policy and programme development in the field, including in Kazakhstan. The monitoring and evaluation system proposed in this report aims to help assess progress in the WSS sector and serve as a basis for any necessary corrective measures.

This book takes a careful look at the concept of sustainable development. What does it mean? How is it affected by production, consumption and globalisation? How it can be measured, and what can be done to promote it? The OECD produces data, research and policy recommendations on many issues related to sustainable development, including climate change, co-operation with developing countries and corporate social responsibility. OECD Insights: Sustainable Development draws on that expertise. It argues that to be sustainable, development has to be based on progress in three areas at once: the economy, society and the environment.

How can we meet the needs of today without diminishing the capacity of future generations to meet theirs? This is the central question posed by "sustainable development". OECD countries committed themselves to sustainable development at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio, yet - almost ten years later - progress accomplished remains partial and uneven. Drawing on analysis carried forward in response to a mandate from OECD Ministers in 1998, this report stresses the urgency to address some of the most pressing challenges for sustainable development. It reviews the conceptual foundations of sustainable development, its measurement, and the institutional reforms needed to make it operational. It then discusses how international trade and investment, as well as development co-operation, can contribute to sustainable development on a global basis, and reviews the experience of OECD countries in using market-based, regulatory and technology policies to reach sustainability goals in a cost-effective way. The report also provides an in-depth analysis of policies designed to address key threats to sustainability in the areas of climate change and natural resource management, as well as of those that respond to sustainability concerns at the sectoral and sub-national level. The common thrust of the report is that substantial opportunities exist to make economic growth, environmental protection, and social development mutually reinforcing.

Since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, sustainability has emerged as an over-arching policy goal in the OECD Secretariat and in its Member countries. Real progress depends upon the integration of environmental and social goals with economic ones. This publication provides an overview and analysis of trends and identifies policy gaps and trade-offs that have been encountered and points to future options. The authors document positive trends which have emerged signalling greater sustainability, as well as areas where progress has proved more elusive. While the main focus is the OECD region, expanding linkages -- among all countries and regions -- form an important part of the story. The coverage of the volume reflects the OECD's diverse subject matter expertise, and some of the interdisciplinary synergies that the Organisation can generate. Part I of this two-part volume concentrates on socio-economic issues, including the integration of economics and environment; trade and environment; changing consumption and production patterns; assessing environmental performance; development co-operation; and the evolution of aid agencies since Rio. Part II takes an in-depth look at nine sectoral issues: energy; transport; agriculture; toxic chemicals; climate change; nuclear energy; urbanisation; biotechnology; and education. In short, this publication gives essential keys to meet the major challengeof the 21st century: helping to make sustainability a reality.

This publication summarises the lessons learned from the 30 country reviews of sustainable development that have been published since 2002 as part of OECD Economic Surveys. It also examines the concrete action that countries have taken to promote sustainable development while concentrating on the results that have been achieved and the efficiency of achieving the results. The publication focuses on major policy areas including the improvement of environmental policies, raising living standards in developing countries, and ensuring sustainable retirement income policies. Numerous tables provide detailed data and sustainable development indicators that have been used to gauge performance and assess costs.

This report analyses planned infrastructure projects, decision-making frameworks related to infrastructure development and strategic planning documents in eight countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It compares current investment flows with countries' national development objectives to identify misalignments and provides policy-makers with recommendations to improve the integration of climate change and other environmental concerns into infrastucture development decision-making processes. The report presents a comprehensive overview of infrastructure investment, primarily in the transport and energy sectors, throughout the region and identifies the risks and opportunities emerging from current investment patterns.

This report analyses planned infrastructure projects, decision-making frameworks related to infrastructure development and strategic planning documents in the six countries of the EU Eastern Partnership: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. It compares current investment flows with countries' national development objectives to identify misalignments and provides policy-makers with recommendations to improve the integration of climate change and other environmental concerns into infrastructure development decision-making processes. The report presents a comprehensive overview of infrastructure investment, primarily in the transport and energy sectors, throughout the region and identifies the risks and opportunities emerging from current investment patterns.

Pressure on the quantity and quality of water from agriculture is a concern in many OECD countries. But the use of water in agriculture is essential to meet growing demands for food, and also provides environmental and social benefits. Key questions for policy makers are how to ensure the sustainable management of water resources in agriculture through coherent policies in the areas of agriculture, water and the environment.
The Athens Workshop helped to illustrate what needs to be done to manage water sustainably in agriculture, in particular through reviewing the experiences in OECD countries. The main conclusions are: continuing the reform of agricultural policies; improving the transparency of water management policies; enhancing water pricing mechanisms; ensuring that all stakeholders are involved in policy formulation; and undertaking cost-benefit analysis in the design of water projects, taking into account environmental considerations.

Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) is increasingly recognised as a policy approach that can make a key contribution to green growth and the challenges that are posed by sustained global economic and demogarphic growth. One of the key challenges of the SMM approach is to effectively address the environmental impacts that can occur along the life-cycle of materials, which frequently extends across borders and involves a multitude of different economic actors.   This book outlines a series of policy principles for SMM, examines how to set and use targets for SMM, and explores various policy instruments for SMM.  In addition it provides examples of policy action plans from the UK and the Netherlands, before presenting a series of conclusions and recommendations.

We live in a period of profound systemic change, and as in similar periods in the past, there is bound to be considerable instability and uncertainty before the new society and economy take shape. We have to identify actions that will shape change for the better, and help to build resilience to the inevitable shocks inherent in, and generated by, the complex system of systems constituted by the economy, society and the environment. These challenges require updating the way policies are devised and implemented, and developing more realistic tools and techniques to design those policies on the basis of appropriate data. In Systemic Thinking for Policy Making world experts from the OECD and International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) pool their expertise and experience to propose new approaches to analysing the interconnected trends and issues shaping today’s and tomorrow’s world. The authors argue that to tackle planetary emergencies linked to the environment, the economy and socio-political systems, we have to understand their systemic properties, such as tipping points, interconnectedness and resilience. They give the reader a precise introduction to the tools and techniques needed to do so, and offer hope that we can overcome the challenges the world is facing.

Dieser Bericht enthält Daten, internationale Praxisbeispiele und politikrelevante Erkenntnisse für die Gestaltung der Wohnungspolitik. Besonders im Fokus stehen dabei drei wichtige Aspekte: Teilhabe, Effizienz und Nachhaltigkeit. In vielen OECD-Ländern ist es zunehmend schwierig geworden, für alle Menschen ausreichend Wohnraum zur Verfügung zu stellen. Grund dafür sind vor allem die steigenden Wohnungspreise, die wiederum eine Folge des unzureichenden Angebots sind, das – gerade in städtischen Räumen mit zahlreichen Arbeitsplätzen – nicht mit der wachsenden Nachfrage Schritt halten konnte. Dies erklärt sich zwar z. T. aus geografischen Gegebenheiten, in vielen Städten beschränken aber auch Flächennutzungs- und Bebauungsvorschriften das Angebot. Zugleich behindern manche mietrechtlichen Bestimmungen die Entwicklung des Mietwohnungsmarkts, was die Mieten steigen lässt. Hinzu kommt, dass die Klimawende für den Wohngebäudesektor eine besondere Herausforderung darstellt, schließlich entfallen auf ihn 17 % der CO₂-Emissionen und 37 % der Feinstaubemissionen weltweit. In fast zwei Dritteln der Länder weltweit fehlt es immer noch an energietechnischen Bauvorschriften. Angesichts der langen Lebensdauer von Wohngebäuden müssen die Klimaanstrengungen hier möglichst frühzeitig greifen. Gestützt auf solide Daten beschreibt dieser Bericht Optionen für konzertierte Maßnahmen, um diese Herausforderungen anzugehen und dabei Komplementäreffekten und Konflikten zwischen verschiedenen Zielen der Wohnungspolitik Rechnung zu tragen. Er ist Teil des „OECD Housing Toolkit“, das auch ein interaktives Online-Dashboard mit Indikatoren und Country-Snapshots enthält.