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Produced by the International Social Science Council (ISSC) and UNESCO, and published by the OECD, the 2013 World Social Science Report represents a comprehensive overview of the field gathering the thoughts and expertise of hundreds of social scientists from around the world.
This edition focuses on the transformative role of the social sciences in confronting climate and broader processes of environmental change, and in addressing priority problems from energy and water, biodiversity and land use, to urbanisation, migration and education.
The report includes 100 articles written by 150 authors from 41 countries all over the world. Authors represent some 24 disciplines, mainly in the social sciences.
The contributions highlight the central importance of social science knowledge for environmental change research, as a means of understanding changing environments in terms of social processes and as framework for finding concrete solutions towards sustainability.
A new global energy landscape is emerging, resetting long-held expectations for our energy future. Incorporating these recent developments and world-class analysis, World Energy Outlook 2013 presents a full update of energy projections through to 2035 and insights into what they mean for energy security, climate change, economic development and universal access to modern energy services. Oil, coal, natural gas, renewables and nuclear power are all covered, along with an update on developments in subsidies to fossil fuels and renewable energy.
This year World Energy Outlook also gives a special focus to topical energy sector issues:
-Redrawing the energy-climate map: the short-term measures that could keep the 2°C target within reach, and the extent to which low-carbon development could leave fossil-fuel investments stranded. Special report to be released 10 June.
-Energy in Brazil: how a vast and diverse resource base – from renewables to new offshore discoveries – can meet the growing needs of the Brazilian economy and open up new export markets.
-Oil supply, demand and trade: a fresh look at the economics and decline rates of different types of oil production around the world, the prospects for light tight oil inside and outside North America, along with new analysis of oil products and the refining sector.
-The implications for economic competitiveness of the changing energy map: what the major disparities in regional energy prices might mean for major energy-intensive industries and the broader impact on economic growth and household purchasing power.
-The global spread of unconventional gas supply, including the uptake of the IEA “Golden Rules” to address public concerns about the associated environmental and social impacts.
-Energy trends in Southeast Asia, a region that is exerting a growing influence in the global energy system. Special report to be released 23 September.
The World Energy Outlook is recognised as the most authoritative source of strategic analysis of global energy markets. It is regularly used as input to the development of government policies and business strategies and raises public awareness of the key energy and environmental challenges the world is facing.
Gender equality in terms of economic and financial opportunities is becoming increasingly relevant at both national and international level. The need to address the financial literacy of women and girls as a way to improve their financial empowerment, opportunities, and well-being has been acknowledged by the G20 Leader’s Declaration in June 2012, as well as part of a wider horizontal OECD project on gender equality. The OECD International Network on Financial Education (INFE) established a dedicated workstream in 2010 to address the needs of women for financial education under the support of the Russia/World Bank/OECD Trust Fund for financial literacy and education.
This book collects the work carried out within this workstream, including policy guidance to help policy makers address women's and girls' needs for financial education, and a comprehensive analysis of the current status of knowledge on gender differences in financial literacy and policy responses in terms of financial education for women and girls.
The IEA Wind Power Technology Roadmap 2013 Edition recognises the very significant progress made since the first edition was published in 2009. The technology continues to improve rapidly, and costs of generation from land-based wind installations continue to fall. Wind power is now being deployed in countries with good resources without any dedicated financial incentives.
The 2013 Edition targets an increased share (15% to 18%) of global electricity to be provided by wind power in 2050, compared to 12% in the original roadmap of 2009. However, increasing levels of low-cost wind still require predictable, supportive regulatory environments and appropriate market designs. The challenges of integrating higher levels of variable wind power into the grid need to be addressed. For offshore wind, much remains to be done to develop appropriate large-scale systems and to reduce costs.
The 2013 Wind Power Roadmap also provides updated analysis on the barriers that exist for the technology and suggests ways to address them, including legal and regulatory recommendations.
Cette brochure est publiée dans le cadre du Régime pour l'Application de normes internationales pour les fruits et légumes établi par l'OCDE en 1962. Elle fournit des notes explicatives et des illustrations en vue de faciliter l'interprétation commune des normes en vigueur pour les pastèques. Cette nouvelle brochure illustre le texte des normes sur les pastèques. Elle décrit les paramètres qualitatifs par des photographies de haute qualité. Elle constitue par conséquent un outil précieux pour les autorités de contrôle, les organes professionnels et les négociants qui manifestent leur intérêt pour le commerce international des pastèques.
This report sets out the challenge for freshwater in a changing climate and provides policy guidance on how to navigate this new “waterscape”. It highlights the range of expected changes in the water cycle and the challenge of making practical, on-site adaptation decisions for water. It offers policymakers a risk-based approach to better “know”, “target” and “manage” water risks and proposes policy guidelines to prioritise action and improve the efficiency, timeliness and equity of adaptation responses.
The report also highlights general trends and good practices drawn from the OECD Survey of Policies on Water and Climate Change Adaptation, covering all 34 member countries and the European Commission. Individual country profiles are available, which provide a snapshot of the challenges posed by climate change for freshwater and the emerging policy responses (on-line only).
Finally, the report highlights the benefits of well-designed economic instruments (e.g. insurance schemes, water trading, water pricing), ecosystem-based approaches and ‘real options’ approaches to financing. These approaches can improve the flexibility of water policy and investment, reducing the cost of adjusting to changing conditions.
This publication examines the critical issues surrounding water security (water shortage, water excess, inadequate water quality, the resilience of freshwater systems), providing a rationale for a risk-based approach and the management of trade-offs between water and other (sectoral and environmental) policies.
The report sets out a three-step process to “know”, “target” and “manage” water risks: (1) appraising the risks, (2) judging the tolerability and acceptability of risks and weighing risk-risk trade-offs, and (3) calibrating appropriate responses.
The publication provides policy analysis and guidance on the use of market-based instruments and the complex links between water security and other policy objectives, such as food security, energy security, climate mitigation and biodiversity protection.
Over the past decade, many OECD countries have introduced new policies to tackle excessive waiting times for elective surgery with some success. However, in the wake of the recent economic downturn and severe pressures on public budgets, waiting times times may rise again, and it is important to understand which policies work. In addition, the European Union has introduced new regulations to allow patients to seek care in other member states, if there are long delays in treatment. This book provides a framework to understand why there are waiting lists for elective surgery in some OECD countries and not in others. It also describes how waiting times are measured in OECD countries, which differ widely, and makes recommendations for best practice. Finally, it reviews different policy approaches to tackling excessive waiting times. Some countries have introduced guarantees to patients that they will not wait too long for treatment. These policies work only if they are accompanied by sanctions on health providers to ensure the guarantee is met or if they allow greater choice of health-care providers including the private sector. Many countries have also introduced policies to expand supply of surgical services, but these policies have generally not succeeded in the long-term in bringing down waiting times. Given the increasing demand for elective surgery, some countries have experimented with policies to improve priorisation of who is entitled to elective surgery. These policies are promising, but difficult to implement.
This report presents the results of the assessment of the organisation of the central government of Norway. The study looks at reforms that are aimed at improving the quality of services (more value) and efficiency (less money) in central government. Starting with facts and quantitative benchmarks on the Norwegian central government, the study reviews recent reforms in Norway, and makes recommendations in ten selected areas. The study concludes with a survey of the effects on the quality of services and the potential savings.
What does it mean for education that our societies are increasingly diverse? How is global economic power shifting towards new countries? In what ways are the skills required in the world of work changing?
Trends Shaping Education 2013 brings together international evidence to give policy makers, researchers, educational leaders, administrators and teachers a robust, non-specialist source to inform strategic thinking and stimulate reflection on the challenges facing education, whether in schools, universities or programmes for older adults. It will also be of interest to students and the wider public, including parents.
The trends presented are based on high-quality international data, primarily from the OECD, the World Bank and the United Nations. The charts contain dynamic links so that readers can access the original data. Trends Shaping Education 2013 is organised around five broad themes, each with its own “Find out more” section: A global world, Living well, Labour and skill dynamics, Modern families and Infinite connection.
Buildings are the largest energy consuming sector in the world, and account for over one-third of total final energy consumption and an equally important source of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Achieving significant energy and emissions reduction in the buildings sector is a challenging but achievable policy goal.
Transition to Sustainable Buildings presents detailed scenarios and strategies to 2050, and demonstrates how to reach deep energy and emissions reduction through a combination of best available technologies and intelligent public policy. This IEA study is an indispensible guide for decision makers, providing informative insights on:
-Cost-effective options, key technologies and opportunities in the buildings sector;
-Solutions for reducing electricity demand growth and flattening peak demand;
-Effective energy efficiency policies and lessons learned from different countries;
-Future trends and priorities for ASEAN, Brazil, China, the European Union, India, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and the United States;
-Implementing a systems approach using innovative products in a cost effective manner; and
-Pursuing whole-building (e.g. zero energy buildings) and advanced-component policies to initiate a fundamental shift in the way energy is consumed.
Future fuel cycle characteristics, feasibility and acceptability will be crucial for the continued development of nuclear energy, especially in the post-Fukushima context. Fuel cycle choices have both long- and short-term impacts, and a holistic assessment of their characteristics, cost and associated safety issues is of paramount importance. This report associates quantified impacts with foreseeable nuclear energy development in different world regions. It gives initial results in terms of uranium resource availability, fuel cycle facility deployment and reactor types. In particular, the need to achieve short doubling times with future fast reactors is investigated and quantified. The report also provides guidelines for performing future studies to account for a wider range of hypotheses on energy demand growth, different hypotheses regarding uranium resource availability and different types of reactors to be deployed.
Revenue bodies are increasingly focusing on improving their understanding of taxpayers and taking advantage of opportunities for collaboration where win-win situations exists. This is not least true for the large and heterogeneous SME segment, which in many countries has proven difficult and costly to administer with traditional approaches.
This Forum on Tax Administration study provides inspiration and guidance to revenue bodies wishing to explore the potential for improving outcomes, reducing costs, improving services and generating other benefits by engaging and involving SME taxpayers and stakeholders. The study provides a conceptual framework illustrating the benefits and situating the approach in the context of public sector reform, technological developments and trends in compliance risk management. It further provides a comprehensive review of current and emerging practices across the areas of information and guidance, compliance risk management, and systemic solutions. Finally the study provides guidance to support successful implementation.
The study finds that while revenue bodies have substantial experience to build on, there is also potential for more systematic, far-reaching and potentially transformative approaches. A key barrier in this regard is that performance metrics relying extensively on output measures channel resources and attention away from innovative approaches that work back from the desired ultimate outcomes.
The ‘basic skills’ of literacy and numeracy are among the most fundamental attributes of human beings and their civilization, lying at the root of our capacity to communicate and live and work together, to develop and share knowledge, science and culture. Their contribution to workforce skills have increasingly been recognized as critical to economic success, while evidence on gaps in adult basic skills and the link with economic and social outcomes has also been growing, both at national and international level (e.g. International Survey of Adult Skills of 1994-98 and Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey of 2003-2007). Most tellingly, there has been a belated realization that despite universal basic education in advanced countries, some adults have slipped through the net, leaving them with very weak literacy and numeracy. All of these factors underline the importance of the OECD’s new international Survey of Adult Skills.
This report on skills in the US draws out the policy implications of the Survey for the US, while also making use of some additional data collected for the Survey on the US alone. The study does not directly evaluate relevant US policies and programs – such as schooling and adult education. Instead it identifies in the results of the Survey some key lessons about the strategic objectives and directions which should form a frame for policy development in the US, including policy on adult learning and schooling.
This reader’s companion for the Survey of Adult Skills explains what the survey measures and the methodology behind the measurements, provides content of the background questionnaires, examines the relationship between this survey and other skills surveys, as well the issues of ‘key competencies” and measurements of human capital.
This book provides an overview of the key challenges currently faced in China and OECD's main policy recommendations to address them. Drawing on the OECD’s expertise in comparing country experiences and identifying best practices, the book tailors the OECD’s policy advice to the specific and timely priorities of China, focusing on how its government can make reform happen.
The Fisheries Manager's Handbook is a compilation of OECD work designed to aid policy makers develop and implement good policies and management tools in fisheries. Drawing upon years of OECD research, it demonstrates how an open policy design process with clear objectives, using market-based instruments and focussed on effective stock management can benefit all those involved in or concerned about the fisheries sector. Of interest not only to policy makers, it will provides a useful guide to NGOs and other interested parties on the principles and processes of good policy design.
The Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness is an exercise in mutual accountability undertaken jointly by the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the OECD following a request of NEPAD Heads of State and Government in 2003. Its purpose is to assess what has been done by Africa and its development partners to deliver commitments in relation to development in Africa, what results have been achieved, and what the key future priorities are. It complements the self-assessments produced by each side to the partnership, and is in line with the shift in emphasis from aid effectiveness to development effectiveness, and the emphasis on mutual accountability at Busan. NEPAD Heads of State and Government and AU/ECA Finance Ministers have reaffirmed the value of this exercise. The 2013 report follows the same structure as the interim and previous reports, divided into 4 main ‘clusters’ of issues covering: sustainable economic growth, investing in people, good governance and financing for development.
Entrepreneurship development is an important requirement for achieving of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. It is also a means to respond to new economic challenges, to create jobs and to fight social and financial exclusion. The impact of the global financial and economic crisis calls for giving entrepreneurship and self-employment a stronger role in economic and social development policies.
This book collects and synthesizes information and data on entrepreneurship activities in Europe, focusing on people that are at the greatest risk of social exclusion. These groups include young people, older people, women, ethnic minorities and migrants, people with disabilities and the unemployed.