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Behavioural insights can help policy makers obtain a deeper understanding of the behavioural mechanisms contributing to environmental problems, and design and implement more effective policy interventions. This report reviews recent developments in the application of behavioural insights to encourage more sustainable consumption, investment and compliance decisions by individuals and firms.
Drawing on interventions initiated by ministries and agencies responsible for environment and energy, as well as cross-government behavioural insights teams, it portrays how behavioural sciences have been integrated into the policy-making process. The report covers a variety of policy areas: energy, water and food consumption, transport and car choice, waste management and resource efficiency, compliance with environmental regulation and participation in voluntary schemes. It shows what has proven to work – and what has not – in policy practice in OECD countries and beyond.
This report provides a global assessment and outlook on wildfire risk in the context of climate change. It discusses the drivers behind the growing incidence of extreme wildfires and the attribution effect of climate change. It outlines the environmental, social and economic impacts of wildfires by illustrating the losses and costs observed during recent extreme wildfire events. Building on this, the report presents the findings of a cross-country comparative analysis of how countries’ policies and practices have evolved in recent years in light of observed and projected changes in wildfire risk. The analysis draws on in-depth case studies conducted in Australia, Costa Rica, Greece, Portugal and the United States. The report underlines the urgent need for governments to scale up climate change adaptation efforts to limit future wildfire costs.
This report investigates how tax revenue from transport fuels could evolve over time as vehicles rely less on fossil fuels, with a focus on the case study of the Republic of Slovenia. Reducing the reliance on fossil fuels in the transport sector is a welcome development from the perspective of its climate and health impacts and of reduced energy dependence. However, under current settings, reduced fuel use will also lead to a loss of tax revenues, which may put stress on government budgets. Based on simulations for Slovenia, with a 2050 horizon, the report provides an in-depth assessment of the taxation of road transport and investigates how tax policy could adapt to declining fossil fuel use in the long term if the objective is to maintain revenues at current levels while taking fairness and efficiency considerations into account. It finds that gradual tax reforms, with an evolving mix of taxes, shifting from taxes on fuel to taxes on distances driven, can contribute to more sustainable tax policy over the long term.
Solving the world’s environmental problems could take a significant toll on economic growth if only today’s technologies are available. We know that innovation – the creation and adoption of new cleaner technologies and know-how – provides a means to achieve local and global environmental goals at significantly lower costs. Innovation is also a major driver of economic growth.
OECD governments are increasingly using environmentally related taxes because they are typically one of the most effective policy tools available. Exploring the relationship between environmentally related taxation and innovation is critical to understanding the full impacts of this policy instrument as well as one potential facet of “green growth.” By putting a price on pollution, do environmentally related taxes spur innovation? What types of innovation result? Does the design of the tax play a critical role? What is the effect of this innovation?
In analysing these questions, this report draws on case studies that cover Japan, Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Israel and others. It covers a wide set of environmental issues and technologies, as well as the economic and policy contexts. The research methods range from econometric analysis to interviews with business owners and executives. The report also explores the use of environmentally related taxes in OECD countries and outlines considerations for policymakers when implementing these taxes.
Green growth policies can stimulate economic growth while preventing environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and unsustainable natural resource use. The results from this publication will contribute to the Green Growth Strategy being developed by the OECD as a practical policy package for governments to harness the potential of greener growth.
The taxation of different sources and uses of energy (particularly those that give rise to emissions of greenhouse gases) will play a key role in governments’ efforts to mitigate the scale of global warming and climate change. At present, effective tax rates vary widely across different sources and uses of energy within countries, as well as across countries. This publication provides the first systematic statistics of such effective tax rates – on a comparable basis - for each OECD country, together with ‘maps’ that illustrate graphically the wide variations in tax rates per unit of energy or per tonne of CO2 emissions. These statistics and maps should be an invaluable tool for policymakers, analysts and researchers considering both domestic fiscal reform in response to climate change and other environmental challenges (e.g. to achieve emissions reductions targets most cost-effectively) and wider international responses.
Energy is a critical input into the production and consumption patterns that support economic and social wellbeing. However, many forms of energy use contribute to the environmental and climate challenges societies face today. Taxation is a key tool by which governments can influence energy use to contain its environmental impacts. This report provides a systematic analysis of the structure and level of energy taxes in OECD and selected other countries; together, they cover 80% of global energy use.
This report builds on the 2013 edition of Taxing Energy Use, expanding the geographic coverage of the 2013 data set to include Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa. The report describes energy use, taxation and pricing in these countries and presents detailed graphical profiles of the structure of energy use and taxation for each.
The analysis reveals large differences in the taxation of energy across countries, although common patterns emerge. Transport taxes are considerably higher than in other sectors, where fuels that cause considerable harm for the environment and human health are often taxed at very low – or zero – rates. With few exceptions, countries' energy taxes do not harness the full power of taxes to reduce pollution and combat climate change.
Emissions from energy use cause environmental and health damages and they also contribute to climate change. By charging for these damages, taxes on energy use can reduce excessive emissions, while raising revenue that can be used to fund vital government services.
This report assesses the magnitude and coverage of taxes on energy use - carbon taxes and other specific taxes on energy use - in 2015, across different countries and selected country groups, six sectors and five main fuel groups. It also considers change in effective tax rates on energy use between 2012 and 2015. The analysis is based on the OECD’s Taxing Energy Use database, a unique dataset to compare coverage and magnitude of specific taxes on energy use across 42 OECD and G20 economies, which together represent approximately 80% of global energy use and CO2-emissions associated with energy use.
Well-designed systems of energy taxation encourage citizens and investors to favour clean over polluting energy sources. In particular, fuel excise and carbon taxes are simple and cost-effective tools to curb dangerous climate change. Energy and carbon taxes also contribute to limiting health damage from local pollution. Taxing Energy Use (TEU) 2019 presents a snapshot of where countries stand in deploying energy and carbon taxes, tracks progress made, and makes actionable recommendations on how governments could do better. The report contains new and original data on energy and carbon taxes in OECD and G20 countries, and in international aviation and maritime transport.
This report evaluates how well EECCA countries have done in ensuring people’s access to adequate water supply and sanitation services since their Economic, Finance, and Environment Ministers adopted the Almaty Guiding Principles to support such efforts in 2000. Besides looking at trends in the technical and financial performance of the water sector, the report analyses the results of institutional reforms at different levels of governance, as well as financing arrangements. Analysis focuses mainly on urban areas, but some of the challenges in rural areas are also examined. The report draws policy recommendations to help countries stem the decline in the sector’s performance that has occurred over the last decade, despite opportunities provided by rapid economic growth in many EECCA countries in this period.
The aim of these studies is to demonstrate the time period for which stability has been shown in representative commodities from crops.
Freezer storage stability studies should include sufficient starting material and should have a sufficiently high concentration of residue to allow for any observed decline during storage to be quantified. Samples could either be from crops (or animals) that have been treated with pesticides in the field, or from the spiking of control commodities with known amounts of each component of the residue definitions. Freshly spiked control samples of the stored commodities should be analysed at each of the time points when aged/stored commodities are removed from frozen storage for analysis. The control samples used for procedural recovery determinations will be the same commodity. At least two sampling intervals (time zero and other) should be used; the sampling interval depends on the stability of the residues. Duplicate samples of every commodity at each time point for all components of the residue definitions need to be analysed.
The report should include the residue results and the statistical treatments.This Test Guideline describes the determining of the ultraviolet-visible (UV-VIS) absorption spectrum of a chemical compound to have some indication of the wavelengths at which the compounds may be susceptible to photochemical degradation. Degradation will depend upon the total energy absorbed in specific wavelength regions. The absence of measurable absorption does not preclude the possibility of photodegradation. This method utilises a double-beam spectrophotometer which records only the absorption differences between the blank (the solvent and all present chemical species other than the test chemical) and test solutions to give the spectrum of the chemical being tested. The test should be carried out at 25°C. The test solutions should be made up in a concentration which will result in at least one absorbance maximum in the range 0.5 to 1.5 units.
This Test Guidelines describes several methods and devices to determine the temperature or temperature range of the phase transition from the solid to the liquid state or from the liquid to the solid state.
The melting point is defined as the temperature at which the phase transition from the solid to the liquid state at atmospheric pressure takes place. It is considerably affected by impurities. The selection of a particular method depends mainly on the state of physical aggregation of the sample and on whether or not the substance can be pulverized easily, with difficulty, or not at all. The methods are: the capillary/liquid bath, the capillary/metal block, the Kofler hot bar, the melt microscope, the differential thermal analysis and differential scanning calorimetry, the freezing temperature and the pour point.
This Test Guideline describes methods to determine the boiling point of test substances. The boiling point of a liquid is defined as the temperature (in K) at which the vapour pressure equals the standard atmospheric pressure 101.325 kPa.
The influence of impurities on the boiling point depends greatly upon the nature of the impurity. The methods described in this Test Guideline can be applied to liquid and low-melting substances, provided that they do not undergo chemical change below the boiling point. The methods are: the ebulliometer, the dynamic method, the distillation method, the method according to Siwoloboff, the photocell detection, the differential thermal analysis, the differential scanning calorimetry. The photocell detection and thermal analysis permit the determination of boiling as well as melting temperatures. The dynamic method has the advantage that it can also be applied to the determination of the vapour pressure.This Test Guideline describes eight methods to measure the vapour pressure. Each one can be applied in different vapour pressure ranges. The vapour pressure (in Pascal) of a substance is defined as the saturation pressure above a solid or liquid substance and is determined at various temperatures (in Kelvin).
The methods used are: the dynamic method (Cottrell’s method), the static method, the isoteniscope Method, the effusion method: vapour pressure balance, the effusion method: Knudsen cell, the effusion method: isothermal thermogravimetry, the gas saturation method and the spinning rotor method. The vapour pressure from any of the preceding methods should be determined for at least two temperatures. Three or more are preferred in the range 0 to 50°C, in order to check the linearity of the vapour pressure curve. In case of Effusion methods and Gas saturation method, 120 to 150 °C is recommended for the measuring temperature range instead of 0 to 50°C.
This Test Guideline describes methods to determine the water solubility of test substances. The water solubility of a substance is the saturation mass concentration of the substance in water at a given temperature. This guideline addresses the determination of the solubility in water of essentially pure substances which are stable in water and not volatile. Before determining water solubility, it is useful to have some preliminary information on the substance, like structural formula, vapour pressure, dissociation constant and hydrolysis as a function of pH.
The column elution method and the flask method which cover respectively solubilities below and above 10-2 g/l are described. The test is preferably run at 20 ± 0,5 °C. A simple preliminary test is allowed to determine approximately the appropriate amount of sample to be used in the final test, as well as the time necessary to achieve saturation.
This Test Guideline is aimed at estimating the adsorption/desorption behaviour of a chemical on different soil types. The goal is to obtain a sorption value which can be used to predict partitioning under a variety of environmental conditions; to this end, equilibrium adsorption coefficients for a chemical on various soils are determined as a function of soil characteristics (organic carbon, clay content, soil texture, and pH). The test comprises three tiers. The tier 1 is the preliminary study, the tier 2 is the screening test (in 5 soils) and the tier 3 is the determination of Freundlich adsorption isotherms or the study of desorption by means of desorption kinetics/Freundlich desorption isotherms, as appropriate. Two methods are possible for analyse: the indirect method and the direct method. The indirect method consists of the adjunction of the test substance to soil samples, the agitation of the mixture for an appropriate time, the analysis of the aqueous phase after centrifugation and the filtration of the soil suspension. The amount of test substance adsorbed on the soil sample is calculated as the difference between the amount of test substance initially present in solution and the amount remaining at the end of the experiment. The direct method is recommended when the difference in the solution concentration of the substance cannot be accurately determined.
This Test Guideline describes a method to determine experimentally Pow values in the range log Pow between -2 and 4 (occasionally up to 5). This method can not be used with surface-active materials. The partition coefficient is defined as the ratio of the equilibrium concentrations of a dissolved substance in a two-phase system consisting of two largely immiscible solvents.
The test should be done at a temperature in the range 20 to 25°C, kept constant at ± 1°. There are three runs with different volumes ratio of n-octanol to water. Duplicate vessels containing accurately measured amounts of the two solvents and stock solution are used in all three runs. After agitation the separation of the two phases, in general, is achieved by centrifugation. It is necessary to determine the concentrations of the test substance in both phases. Analytical methods which may be appropriate are: photometry, gas chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography. The total quantity of substance present in both phases should be calculated and compared with the quantity originally introduced. A Pow value is calculated from the data of each run. The six log Pow values should fall within a range of ± 0.3 units.
This Test Guideline describes the polarographic method. The ability of a substance to form complexes with metals can be assessed by means of polarographic techniques which allow the determination of stability constants for some complexes.
The polarographic method can be applied to substances with a water solubility greater than 10-5 M. This method is based on the fact that the reduction potentials of metal ions are shifted, usually to more negative values, as a result of complex formation. A minimum of four known concentrations of the chemical being tested should be investigated with a known concentration of metal ions. The chemical being tested should normally be present in at least a 25-fold excess over the metal ion concentrations. The current should be measured at applied potentials in the range - 0.2 V to -1.0 V. In order to detect complexes which form slowly, it is necessary to allow the solutions to stand under a nitrogen atmosphere for a minimum period of 24 hours. If the results are not significant, it is necessary to use methods based on different physicochemical principles, such as spectrophotometry or nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry.
This Test Guideline lists methods for determining the density of liquids and solids, giving only a succinct description of them. The density of a substance is the quotient of its mass and its volume and is expressed in SI units as kg/m3 at a specified temperature. Several methods are for liquid substance only: hydrometer, immersed body method (both are buoyancy methods) and oscillating densitometer. These methods are applicable to liquids with a dynamic viscosity below 5 Pa.s for hydrometer and oscillating densitometer and below 20 Pa.s for immersed body method. The method for solids only is the air comparison pycnometer, and pour and tap. The methods for both liquids and solids are the hydrostatic balance (a buoyancy method) and the pycnometer. The dynamic viscosity of liquids to be investigated should not exceed 5 Pa.s for the hydrostatic balance, and should not be above 500 Pa.s for the pycnometer.
This Test Guideline lists methods for determining the density of liquids and solids, giving only a very succinct description of them. The density of a substance is the quotient of its mass and its volume and is expressed in kg/m3.
Several methods are for liquid substance only: hydrometer, immersed body method (both are buoyancy methods) and oscillating densitometer. These methods are applicable to liquids with a dynamic viscosity below 5 Pa s for hydrometer and oscillating densitometer and below 20 Pa s for immersed body method. The method for solids only is the air comparison pycnometer. The volume of a sample of the solid is measured in air or in an inert gas in a calibrated cylinder of variable volume. After concluding the volume measurement, the sample is weighed. The methods for liquids and solids are the hydrostatic balance (a buoyancy method) and the pycnometer. The dynamic viscosity of liquids to be investigated should not exceed 5 Pa s for hydrostatic balance, and should not be above 500 Pa s for pycnometer.