This report quantifies the environmental, health and economic consequences of policy action on air pollution in Arctic Council countries, with a focus on sectoral differences. The report takes a modelling approach and compares a baseline scenario...

This report takes stock of scientific findings to date regarding the distributional effects of policies discouraging car use in urban areas. These policies include cordon tolls, distance-based charges, fuel taxes, parking measures and public...

Global trade in plastic waste and scrap declined further (2017-2021) in 2021 and preliminary data indicates a continuing trend in the first half of 2022 (January to May). The combined trade surplus of OECD Member Countries (i.e., the difference...

The economic consequences for firms investing in green innovation, and therefore their incentives to innovate, are not well understood. This paper empirically assesses the economic returns on innovation in cleaner vehicles. The analysis uses data on...

Despite decades of experience with Deposit Refund Systems (DRS) in some countries and sub-national markets, there are only a few instances where DRS is complemented by additional mandatory extended producer responsibility (EPR) policy instruments...

Plastics leakage has become a pressing issue for many developing countries. While a number of development co-operation initiatives with a focus on tackling plastic pollution have recently emerged, there is currently no comprehensive assessment of the...

Despite calls for the reform of incentives, including subsidies, harmful to biodiversity, including under the Convention on Biological Diversity and its 2011-2020 Aichi Targets, very few countries to date have undertaken what is considered the first...

Hydrogen is a cross-cutting energy vector that can help to decarbonise various end-use sectors. At least two-thirds of the global hydrogen production is projected to be green hydrogen by 2050, supporting the transition to a net-zero emissions global...

Environmental amenities provide a range of direct and indirect benefits in cities, and amenity provision often figures within policy portfolios to advance sustainability in urban areas. As environmental pressures and urban populations increase, it...

There are major gaps in the measurement of the adoption and stringency of countries’ climate actions and policies, notably in a manner coherent across countries, time, sectors and instrument types. The climate actions and policies measurement...

Water infrastructure investments are typically capital-intensive and long-lived, involving significant costs and benefits. Their performance over operational lifetimes is highly dependent on the vagaries of the hydrological cycle and subject to the...

This paper supports countries in understanding the potential impact of climate-related natural hazards by assessing the exposure of people and assets to these hazards. It develops indicators of climate-related hazards and exposures for seven hazard...

This paper analyses existing methodologies developed by commercial services providers, research institutes or civil society organisations for investors and financial institutions, to assess the alignment of their assets and portfolios with the Paris...

Innovation is key to reducing the environmental impacts of plastics. However, literature is generally lacking in the field of environmentally relevant plastics innovation. This paper develops an innovative conceptual framework to document and map...

The fuel efficiency of conventional private vehicles is a key input in the design of several economic and environmental policies. Reliable projections of the fuel efficiency variable can improve estimates on the future emission savings from policies...

Air pollution is a global challenge to people’s health and has severe economic consequences. The region of Northeast Asia is no exception. Across most regions in Japan, and in the entire territories of Korea and China, annual average concentrations...

Achieving climate-resilient economies and societies will not only require increasing the billions of financial flows for adaptation, but also shifting broader -- public and private -- financial flows and investment away from potentially mal-adapted...

Reducing air pollution is a major policy challenge, especially in densely populated urban areas where human exposure to emissions is considerable. This paper develops and examines a series of scenarios for the evolution of transport-related emissions...

Trade in plastic waste and scrap plays a potentially important role in helping to strengthen markets for recycled plastics as it can help to achieve economic efficiency through for instance economies of scale. But such trade has also been criticised...

Women’s participation in environmental decision-making is important for advancing both gender equality and environmental action. The presence of women in political decision-making is linked to more ambitious climate goals and policies. Women on...