This report provides a review of recent firm-level and plant-level surveys containing questions on environmental policies, innovation practices or performance which are relevant for environmental policy analysis and assessment. We specifically focus on the core element that relates environmental policies to environmental and economic performance, namely the adoption of innovative practices and environmental innovations by firms.

This report explores potential effects of the recent rapid growth in Environmental Labelling Information Schemes (ELIS) around the world, with a focus on the implications of ELIS multiplication for environmental effectiveness and international trade.

The Paris Agreement is a landmark in collective efforts on climate change and is the result of many years’ hard work. It must now be implemented.

Sound public policies grounded in evidence – and implemented effectively – will be crucial for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This document outlines four broad areas for future action for the OECD, highlighting what it could do more of – or do differently – to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. C/MIN(2016)6.

Outdoor air pollution could cause 6 to 9 million premature deaths a year by 2060 and cost 1% of global GDP – around USD 2.6 trillion annually – as a result of sick days, medical bills and reduced agricultural output, unless action is taken, according to a new OECD report.

The OECD will convene its 6th Workshop on Regional trade agreements and the environment on 10 June 2016, at the OECD Headquarters. The focus of the workshop will be on chapters of regional trade agreement (RTAs) that are concerned mainly with issues other than the environment, such as market access, investment, or government procurement, TBT, regulatory coherence or dispute settlement.

Current carbon prices are falling short of the levels needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change, but even moderate price increases could have a significant impact, according to new OECD research.

This brief is a contribution to the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22) and a submission of recommendations for the renewal of the Lima Work Programme on Gender. It provides an overview of how well members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) are integrating gender equality into their bilateral aid to climate change.

The world must ramp up its efforts to use natural resources more sustainably and conserve biological diversity and the ecosystems on which we depend for human life, the OECD today told participants at the COP13 Convention on Biological Diversity in Cancun, Mexico.

This report provides an analysis of how climate change damages may affect international trade in the coming decades and how international trade can help limit the costs of climate change. It analyses the impacts of climate change on trade considering both direct effects on infrastructure and transport routes and the indirect economic impacts resulting from changes in endowments and production.

This paper describes MOLES 1.0, an integrated land-use and transport model developed with Object-Oriented Programming principles in order to combine selected characteristics from Spatial Computable General Equilibrium and microsimulation models. MOLES 1.0 models the links between urban land use, mobility patterns, urban economic activities and their environmental impacts, in particular air pollution and emissions of greenhouse gases.

This report examines the implications of regional climate governance for international trade and conversely the implications of regional trade governance for climate change action. Regional approaches to climate change governance are discussed with a specific focus on the rise of “climate clubs” and their implications for international trade.

Climate change is a clear and undeniable challenge that requires a global response. The Paris Agreement represents the careful crafting of a collective effort of over 190 countries to meet this challenge.

With marine biodiversity deteriorating at an alarming rate, there will soon be little left of the “octopus’s garden” that The Beatles once sang about. According to "Marine Protected Areas: Economics, Management and Effective Policy Mixes", pollution, overfishing and rising temperatures have damaged or destroyed 60% of the earth’s marine ecosystems.

This paper analyses the reform undertaken by Iceland to avert a looming crisis and restore fish stocks to sustainable levels; and outlines the process involved in designing and implementing this reform. It also reflects on the challenges encountered and the environmental, economic and social impacts of the reform. This country study draws on the OECD report "The Political Economy of Biodiversity Policy Reform".

The wet and verdant expanse of the Mekong Delta’s rivers and farms is a veritable rice bowl for the world. Not only do the region’s paddies produce half of Viet Nam’s rice crop yearly, the country is the world’s third largest rice exporter, with 17% of world exports of paddy rice. Our analysis identifies Viet Nam as facing the world’s fourth highest water risks for rice production.

Action to prevent the risk of major flooding in Paris and the Ile de France region has improved in recent years – particularly after the Seine burst its banks in May and June 2016 – but urban and territorial planning needs to be better adapted, governance strengthened and long-term funding clarified, according to the OECD.

The OECD has been awarded the Hassan II World Water Prize by the government of Morocco and the World Water Council in recognition of its work under Secretary-General Angel Gurría to elevate water security as a crucial global issue and the policy guidance it has provided countries around the world on the issue.

This report examines what would be needed to achieve zero CO2 emissions from international maritime transport by 2035. It assesses measures that can reduce shipping emissions effectively and describes possible decarbonisation pathways that use different combinations of these measures; and reviews under which conditions these measures could be implemented and presents concrete policy recommendations.

This report focuses on the extent to which governments have complied with the environmental commitments made in the trade agreements to which they are a Party. The report takes a two track approach. First, a review of implementation and evaluation reports associated with environmental provisions in such agreements is performed. Second, a survey of government officials, trade negotiators and other experts is carried out.

This paper reviews the existing literature on modelling the macroeconomic consequences of the transition to a circular economy. It provides insights into the current state of the art on modelling policies to improve resource efficiency and the transition to a circular economy by examining 24 modelling-based assessments of a circular economy transition.

Hungary has made progress in greening its economy and cutting emissions, but it needs to speed up efforts to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy sources, improve energy efficiency in buildings and promote sustainable transport, according to a new OECD Review.

The Czech economy is thriving, with robust employment, expanding exports and falling government debt. Efforts should now focus on boosting workforce skills and innovation to improve labour supply and productivity, further reduce poverty and inequality, and green the economy, according to two new OECD reports.

10-12 July 2018 - Within the margins of the meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation under the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Forum examined the opportunities and challenges with regard to biodiversity mainstreaming in national economic and development policy and across different sectors (e.g., agriculture, forestry, fisheries, energy and mining).

This paper aims to test whether the inclusion of environmental provisions in Regional Trade Agreements has contributed to the improvement of environmental quality among the Parties to these agreements through empirical modelling and analysis. Three indicators are considered as a proxy for environmental quality: concentrations of suspended particulate matter less than 2.5 microns, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.

This Policy Paper comprises the Background Report prepared by the OECD for the G7 Environment, Energy and Oceans Ministers (19-21 September, Canada). It provides an overview of current plastics production and use, the environmental impacts that this is generating and identifies the reasons for currently low plastics recycling rates, as well as what can be done about it.

4-5 October 2018, Germany - Jointly organised by the OECD and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the conference aimed to discuss innovative applications of blended finance as the strategic use of development finance for the mobilisation of finance towards sustainable development in developing countries in the water sector.

The transition towards a resource efficient and circular economy has linkages with international trade through the emergence of global value chains as well as trade in second-hand goods, end-of-life products, secondary materials and waste. This paper highlights the interaction of international trade and the circular economy in order to map out potential issues to address and to guide further research areas to explore on this topic.

This summer, we witnessed record-breaking heat and extreme weather events across the globe. To address the urgent climate challenge, and meet our broader development goals, trillions of dollars need to be invested in low-emissions and resilient infrastructure.

This report investigates the effects of select climate policies, non-climate policies, as well as political economy factors on the decarbonisation of electricity in OECD countries from 2000 to 2015. Effects are analysed on the three phases of decarbonisation: (1) increasing the share of renewables installed, (2) increasing the use of renewables in generation, and (3) reducing the emissions from electricity.

Public climate finance from developed to developing countries totalled USD 56.7 billion in 2017, up 17% from USD 48.5 billion in 2016, according to new data compiled by the OECD.

At a time when nationalism is rising and individual countries are facing a growing array of threats, it is critical that we recognize a shared and unprecedented global challenge: We need to double our infrastructure in the next decade to meet global development needs, while achieving a systematic shift away from business-as-usual, carbon-intensive options to low-emissions, resilient infrastructure, to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Extended producer responsibility is a policy approach that aims to increase waste recovery and recycling. Extended producer responsibility systems aim to make producers responsible for the environmental impacts of their products throughout the product chain, from design to the end-of-life phase. This report focuses on free-riding of producers or retailers, which the fast expansion of online sales in recent years has been exacerbating.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of congestion pricing on the demand for clean transport modes. It draws on an empirical analysis of the effect of Milan’s congestion charge on the use of bike sharing. The analysis indicates that congestion pricing increases daily bike-sharing use by at least 5% in the short term.

Tourism has boomed in Indonesia in recent years and is already one of the main sources of foreign-currency earnings.

This paper assesses the effect of environmental regulations on plant survival and emissions using data on the extent of vintage differentiation of regulations (VDR5) regarding air pollution emission limit values for existing and new coal-fired power plants. Focussing on NOx and SOx emissions, the paper applies survival analysis techniques on a sample of generating units across 31 OECD and non-member countries between 1962 and 2012.

This paper shows how women and men may use infrastructure differently according to their needs, social roles or preferences; and provides a framework to help countries align their infrastructure policies and projects with other societal and environmental goals, including supporting gender equality.

The Latvian economy is thriving, with strong job growth driving convergence with more advanced economies. Efforts should now focus on reducing inequality, responding to the challenges posed by population ageing and making growth stronger, inclusive and greener, according to two new OECD reports.

Policy instruments can be applied to improve the sustainability of plastics, including regulations, market-based instruments, information and voluntary tools. The report reviews the use of these instruments, provides good practice examples, such as product taxes and charges, eco-design standards, extended producer responsibility and environmental product labels, as well as discussing opportunities for their future applications.

Policy instruments can be applied to improve the sustainability of plastics, including regulations, market-based instruments, information and voluntary tools. The report reviews the use of these instruments, provides good practice examples, such as product taxes and charges, eco-design standards, extended producer responsibility and environmental product labels, as well as discussing opportunities for their future applications.

Climate finance provided and mobilised by developed countries for climate action in developing countries reached USD 71.2 billion in 2017, up from USD 58.6 billion in 2016, according to new estimates from the OECD.

This paper focuses on how national and sub-national governments can align subnational financial flows to transition towards low-carbon, resilient and inclusive cities. The paper is a contribution from the OECD Champion Mayors for Inclusive Growth initiative and to the OECD Programme on Subnational Finance and Investment.

Is this the beginning of a paradigm shift in the financial system towards environmentally sustainable finance? And if not, what can we do to accelerate this shift? The OECD stands ready to support efforts to build political leadership and address outstanding barriers to sustainable finance.

National development banks (NDBs) and development finance institutions are poised to play a role in bridging the investment gap for climate-compatible infrastructure in developing countries. This paper highlights the role of NDBs drawing from case studies of the Brazilian Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social and the Development Bank of Southern Africa.

Developing countries are at the forefront of the ongoing battle to address climate change. Roughly 60% of the new infrastructure built before 2030 will be in the developing world, and it is these investment decisions that will determine our collective ability to address the climate emergency.

Donor countries must do more to bring development finance in line with climate goals, raising the share used for climate action and reducing to zero the amount that supports new fossil fuel activities, according to a new OECD report.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, will be in Madrid on 2nd December 2019 to attend the official opening of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP25).

Type “Christmas and environment” into Google and you will get page after page of tips on how to have a sustainable festive and holiday season. Topics from the Christmas tree to sustainable gift-giving to eco-friendly Christmas food to holiday cards to gift wrapping, there is no shortage of news articles, websites and blogs providing useful advice on how to reduce the environmental footprint of the holiday period.

This report investigates in what ways Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) could incorporate environmental objectives in chapters and articles related to subsidies for energy and environmental goods. It highlights the current state of play in incorporating provisions related to environmentally related subsidies in RTAs.

The 28 States and 7 Union Territories of India are favorite tourist destinations for globetrotters. Each region offers a distinctive taste of travel experience. Thousands of travelers visit every day to the land to explore its...