This country note provides an environmental tax and carbon pricing profile for Iceland. It shows environmentally related tax revenues, taxes on energy use and effective carbon rates.

Switzerland tops for the first time the OECD fixed broadband ranking, with 39.9 subscribers per 100 inhabitants, followed closely by the Netherlands (39.1) and Denmark (37.9). The OECD average is 25.6, according to new OECD statistics.

The OECD has adopted a new basket methodology for benchmarking wireless broadband prices. It adds to the existing baskets for voice, leased lines and fixed broadband services and reflects the increasing importance of wireless broadband for laptops, tablets and smartphones.

In OECD countries, networks look like a mesh with multiple paths that can act as each other’s backup. In developing countries, however, communication networks often resemble rivers, with small branches of regional networks delivering their traffic to a central national backbone that ends at one submarine fibre, making cable cuts a greater risk to the functioning of the economy.

A key issue for policy makers and regulators is market structures that will best deliver efficient and inclusive mobile communication services. This report addresses recent experience in selected countries that have changed or held constant the number of facilities-based operators; and initial experience and key questions that have arisen with wireless network sharing.

On the occasion of the Global Conference on Cyberspace meeting today in The Hague, the Global Commission on Internet Governance (GCIG) issued a statement calling on ‘the global community to build a new social compact between citizens and their elected representatives, the judiciary, law enforcement and intelligence agencies, business, civil society and the Internet technical community..

The country profile: pension eligibility ages and other qualifying conditions; the rules for calculating benefit entitlements; the treatment of early and late retirees; personal income tax and social security contributions.

Ireland should make its pension system simpler and fairer so that everyone gets sufficient income for a decent standard of living in retirement, according to a new OECD report.

This 2013 and fifth edition of Pensions at a Glance provides a range of indicators for comparing pension policies and their outcomes between OECD countries. The indicators are also, where possible, provided for the other major economies that are members of the G20.

This paper presents the findings of an international stocktaking of the regulatory frameworks that apply to institutional investment in different jurisdictions and how these frameworks are interpreted by institutional investors in terms of their ability or responsibility to integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in their governance processes.

Drawing on data presented in the 2017 OECD Business and Finance Outlook, this article looks at some of the forces influencing recent economic developments and asks what can be done to ensure a “fairer” global economy.

21 June 2017, Paris: Co-organised by the International Network for Pensions, Aging, and Retirement Research (INPARR), the OECD and IOPS, this seminar provided a window into the latest thinking and research that sheds light on where pension plans and designs are headed in the future and challenges to their future sustainability and efficiency.

25-26 April 2018, Tokyo - This event will bring together key stakeholders from the Asia Pacific region to discuss policy issues relevant to the sound development of insurance and private pensions markets.

07/03/2019 - The OECD Insurance and Private Pensions Committee (IPPC) has confirmed the appointment of Mr Yoshihiro Kawai, Advisor to the Commissioner, Japan Financial Services Agency, as its Chair.

This policy brief analyses the impact of reforms in recent decades on pension systems, including comparisons of the pensions people starting work today can expect compared to the pensions of people who retired recently.

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Austria has a higher share of immigrants in the total working-age population than many other OECD countries. At the same time, the framework for integration policy is less developed than in a number of other OECD countries. These are among the main findings of this review.

Since its independence from the Soviet Union, Kyrgyzstan has rather been known as an emigration country, however around 4% of the population was born outside the current national territory and the country keeps attracting new immigrants.

45% of refugees in Europe are women, yet little is known on their integration outcomes and the specific challenges they face. This report summarises prior research on the integration of refugee women, both compared with refugee men and other immigrant women. It also provides new comparative evidence from selected European and non-European OECD countries.

Finland should offer labour-market-oriented integration support to all migrants, strengthen efforts to identify and address early vulnerabilities, and work more closely with employers according to a new OECD report.

This country note provides an environmental tax and carbon pricing profile for Luxembourg. It shows environmentally related tax revenues, taxes on energy use and effective carbon rates.

Despite Portugal’s economic and political challenges, it is still committed to improving the environment. The government sees green investment in its stimulus package and green tax reform as part of the solution to the national budget deficit.

Inducing environmental innovation is a significant challenge to policy-makers. Efforts to design public policies that address these issues are motivated by the fact that innovations can allow for improved environmental quality at lower cost.

In recent years Israel has strengthened its environmental policies and now should develop a green growth plan that combines environmental, economic and social policies.

As the Slovak Republic strives to increase productivity and competitiveness in the recovery from the financial crisis, the OECD Environmental Performance Review of the Slovak Republic recommends that it strengthen environmental policies.

This publication presents a major meta-analysis of 'value of a statistical life' (VSL) estimates derived from surveys where people around the world have been asked about their willingness to pay for small reduction in mortality risks.

Germany is successfully limiting the amount of carbon, energy and resources required to grow its economy. Though the public is generally satisfied with the level of environmental quality, the OECD’s Environmental Performance Review of Germany warns that ch

Slovenia's rich and diverse environment is under pressure from the country’s expanding economy. OECD’s first Environmental Performance Review of Slovenia says that greening growth, including though green tax reform, better use of public and private finance, could help Slovenia.

This paper analyses the determinants of invention in efficiency-enhancing electricity generation technologies that have the potential to facilitate climate change mitigation efforts, including fossil fuel based technologies aimed at reducing carbon emissions, renewables and nuclear technologies.

Developing effective policies to reduce illegal trade in environmentally sensitive goods requires a clear understanding of what drives this trade and the circumstances under which it thrives, says this report.

This paper presents comparative data on innovation in selected climate change mitigation and adaptation technologies in the context of Africa. Such analysis informs policy aimed at encouraging international technology transfer and development of domestic innovation capacities.

This paper reviews the recent experience of Germany in encouraging innovation to reduce negative environmental impacts of economic activity. The essence of the German approach to policy-induced environmental innovation is discussed in the context of changing policy objectives, and illustrated with selected examples from waste management, renewable energy and transportation.

Two new OECD reports provide wide-ranging evidence of how reforming subsidies and tax breaks for fossil fuels can help countries boost finances and meet green objectives.

Italy has taken a range of initiatives to improve the management of its natural resources and reduce energy intensity. Despite this progress, the OECD’s Environmental Performance Review of Italy says the country still faces numerous environmental challenges.

Saving the environment falls into that category for many people, but the good news for the planet is that the OECD has identified a group of people who “believe that sacrifices will be necessary to solve environmental problems”.

People care for the environment, and a large majority state that they are willing to make compromises to green their lifestyle according to a new OECD survey of 12,000 households. However, the economic crisis has taken its toll, and the survey shows that the environment is slipping down on the list of people’s priorities.

Evidence for the agricultural sectors of OECD countries from 1990 to 2010 shows improvements have been made in nutrient, pesticide, energy and water management, using less of these inputs per unit volume of output, according to this report. Environmentally beneficial practices by farmers, such as conservation tillage, improved manure storage, soil nutrient testing and drip irrigation, have also contributed to improvements.

Governments around the world are encouraging people to factor the environment into their everyday lives and purchases. Is it leading to more sustainable consumption? Are households ‘going green’?

This paper provides an update on recent developments in the field of Regional Trade Agreements and the environment. Issues arising in the implementation of RTAs with environmental considerations are examined as well as experience in assessing their environmental impacts.

This paper proposes a new measure of stringency to measure the consequences of environmental regulations on investment, labour demand, and patterns of international trade that would be based on emissions data and which could be constructed separately for different pollutants.

Competitiveness and carbon leakage issues have been some of the main concerns in the implementation and discussions of climate policies. This paper examines the macroeconomic and sectoral competitiveness and carbon leakage impacts associated with a range of stylised mitigation policy scenarios.

The meeting took place on 17-18 September 2013 in Tbilisi, Georgia and marked the 20th anniversary of the OECD environment-related co-operation with countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia.

In the two decades since apartheid ended, South Africa has made impressive strides to catch up with – and in some cases surpass -- the developed world’s environmental standards.

Colombia has made progress towards eliminating fuel and diesel subsidies and reducing discretionary spaces allowing for artificially low fuel prices, but challenges remain. This paper discusses the political economy of fuel subsidies in the country to understand why reform has been so slow.

Colombia’s rich natural heritage as one of the world’s most bio-diverse countries is coming under increasing pressure from extractive industries, livestock grazing, urbanisation and car use, according to a new OECD report.

Air pollution is costing advanced economies plus China and India an estimated USD 3.5 trillion a year in premature deaths and ill health and the costs will rise without government action to limit vehicle emissions, a new OECD report says.

Today’s post, marking World Environment Day, is from OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría. Air pollution has become the biggest environmental cause of premature death, overtaking poor sanitation and a lack of clean drinking water.

Sweden has shown a longstanding commitment to the environment, significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and nitrogen leaching. Renewables supply more than a third of its energy needs. Sweden has set itself tough targets for the future, however, and must continue to innovate if it is to meet them, according to a new OECD report.

In its 2012 edition of the World Energy Outlook, the International Energy Agency (IEA) produced an Efficient World Scenario to assess how implementing only economically viable energy efficiency measures would affect energy markets, investment and greenhouse emissions (GHG). Using the OECD ENV-Linkages macro-economic model, this report simulates the economic and environmental impacts which the IEA Efficient World Scenario implies.

This document provides a detailed technical description of the ENV-Linkages model. The OECD ENV-Linkages Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model is an economic model that describes how economic activities are inter-linked across several macroeconomic sectors and regions. It links economic activity to environmental pressure, specifically to emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs).