The G20 needs to go structural, social, and green! With fiscal and monetary policy room nearly exhausted, structural reforms are the best choices, sometimes the only choice. The OECD battle cry in this regard has been unchanged since 2008: “go structural!”.

As environmental pressures continue to rise, governments throughout the OECD area have not been sitting back. If anything, the stringency of their policy measures has been increasing on the whole, not least to combat pollution and climate change. And as the evidence shows, stringent environmental policies can be introduced without hurting overall productivity.

Third Annual Conference on the theme of "Fiscal Policies and the Green Economy Transition: Generating Knowledge – Creating Impact" held at the University of Venice from 29 through 30 January 2015. The press release is available.

Climate policy and competitiveness issues have created a new need for international co-ordination, beyond the scope of our current frameworks. There is no need to trade economic growth for environmental stringency. Environmentally stringent policies are an incentive for greater efficiencies which leading edge companies can easily achieve.

The OECD’s latest Environmental Performance Review of Spain finds the country has decreased the energy and carbon intensity of its economy, reduced industrial pollution and cut per-capita waste generation since 2000.

Knowledge sharing is critical in fostering urban green growth. Cities in dynamic Asia urgently need to adopt and strengthen green growth models that take into account rapid urbanisation, industrialisation, and motorisation.

Climate change and, more generally, environmental damage have quantifiable economic and health costs, which weigh on long-term growth and well-being. If left unchecked, climate change is projected to decrease global GDP by 0.7 to 2.5 % by 2060. At the same time, the costs to society of air pollution already appear substantial–equivalent to some 4% of GDP across OECD countries and even higher in some rapidly developing economies.

A transition to a low carbon economy is achievable, but will require a concerted, more consistent effort across a range of policy areas, from tradeable permits to stringent norms.

In the coming months, the international community will gather three times and on three different continents, to build a sustainable development agenda for generations to come.

In his remarks to the Business & Climate Summit, the Secretary-General said that business lies at the heart of what we need to achieve on climate action. If Governments produce clear, credible and coherent national policies and clear messages and signals, the full transformative power of business, markets and human ingenuity will be unleashed.

“Neither economists nor market participants, nor indeed governments foresaw a financial crisis of the type and magnitude we have now. The collapse of trust and subsequent credit freeze in the wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse was a shock.”

Government support to fossil fuel consumption and production in OECD countries and key emerging economies remains high, at USD 160-200 billion annually, according to a new OECD report. This support is hampering global efforts to curb emissions and combat climate change.

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría today called on all countries to fully engage with the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and said advanced and emerging economies had a particular responsibility to translate the global goals into national policy and to support developing countries in doing the same.

Economic and social reforms over the past two decades have enabled Peru to significantly improve growth and well-being while raising incomes and reducing poverty.

Advanced and emerging economies have made progress in addressing climate change, yet most are on a trajectory that would see them fall short of their mitigation goals. Governments need to significantly accelerate their efforts and strengthen their climate change policies.

Average global temperature could rise by 3-6 degrees Celsius by 2100 if we don’t act. To keep the rise to 2 degrees Celsius, we need to have net zero emissions by the end of the century. Emissions would need to peak by 2030 to give us a fighting chance of achieving this.

OECD urges efforts to better price carbon as new analysis finds that 90% of CO2-emissions are priced below EUR 30 per tonne, a low-end estimate of climate damage, and 60% are not priced at all. Effective Carbon Rates in the OECD and Selected Partner Economies calculates effective carbon rates (ECR) on CO2-emissions from energy use for 41 countries which together use 80% of global emissions.

This is a watershed day for the world and especially heartening for the OECD as one of the first international bodies to call for zero net emissions in the second half of the century, for a price on carbon and for greater efforts to channel finance into the low carbon economy.

Despite great strides in reducing the number of people in abject poverty, Asia and the Pacific remains home to more than half of the world’s extreme poor. With the global and regional economic outlook uncertain, the key challenge facing Asia is to sustain the growth needed to create jobs and reduce poverty. Read the latest blog by Mr. Stephen P. Groff, Vice President of the Asian Development Bank.

Read the latest blog by Patrick Paul Walsh, Professor of International Development Studies, University College Dublin, Ireland and Senior Advisor, UN SDSN, Earth Institute, on the Implications of the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda for the OECD.

The Paris Agreement on climate change signals the end of business as usual for energy industries. For the first time in history more than 150 developed and developing countries have promised to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But how binding are these agreements? And do they provide impetus for local action in Africa?

Further structural reforms are needed to help the business sector boost productivity growth and overcome the key challenges of sluggish investment in advanced economies and excess capacity in emerging economies, according to a new OECD report.

The Fourth Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP) Annual Conference will take place on the theme of “Transforming Development through Inclusive Green Growth” during 6-7 September 2016 at the International Convention Center on Jeju Island, Republic of Korea.

OECD countries must step up their efforts to improve the quality and equity of their education systems as part of their commitments to meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for education by 2030, according to a new OECD report.

There are now 45 Adherents to the 2009 OECD Declaration on Green Growth. Georgia has joined Costa Rica, Colombia, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Morocco, Peru, Tunisia, as well as OECD members in having adhered to the Declaration.

The Fifth GGKP Annual Conference will be hosted by the World Bank on the topic of sustainable infrastructure, to stimulate research on these issues and foster interdisciplinary dialogue where relevant.The scientific committee therefore calls for contributions on any aspect of the infrastructure agenda, particularly for developing countries, with a focus on sustainability. Deadline for preliminary versions by 15 June 2017.

More than any other leader in modern history, Nelson Mandela understood that a society must bridge divides and work together to thrive. He also firmly believed that we must strive to leave our children with a safer, more peaceful and more prosperous world than the one we inherited. He said that “there can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children”.

Integrating measures to tackle climate change into regular economic policy will have a positive impact on economic growth over the medium and long term, according to a new OECD report prepared in the context of the German Presidency of the G20.

The tax wedge for the average single worker in Israel increased by 0.2 percentage points from 22.5 in 2018 to 22.7 in 2019. The OECD average tax wedge in 2019 was 36.0 (2018, 36.1). In 2019 Israel had the 32nd lowest tax wedge among the 36 OECD member countries, occupying the same position in 2018.

The tax wedge for the average single worker in Ireland increased by 0.3 percentage points from 32.9 in 2018 to 33.2 in 2019. The OECD average tax wedge in 2019 was 36.0 (2018, 36.1). In 2019 Ireland had the 24th lowest tax wedge among the 36 OECD member countries, compared with the 25th in 2018.

The demand for Project Management professionals is high, according to the latest poll from IT jobs watch (21 March 2013), there are currently 9671 Project Management roles advertised in the IT Sector alone, with an average...

The village temple stands as a sacred abode of HOPES, DREAMS, PROGRAMMES and IDEALS.

A woman comes with a basket full of flowers, agarbati and...

In yester years, only the business organizations with huge financial backing were able to initiate the process of custom software development. This condition immediately changed when positive remarks on the usage of these applications...

Chapter A

So just what is the Modern Age, and how do we get there? First people need to educate themselves in the sense they have power over the University System. It is not the...

The power of Fortuner is back as the Japanese auto giant Toyota launches its second generation priced at Rs. 25.92 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

The capital city of Karnataka is prepping to host the biggest entertainment event at KTPO Convention Centre in Whitefield on 12-13 November 2016.

New real estate norms have jazzed up the monotonous property market. This has encouraged salesmen and agents to sell the property by offering freebies and discounts.

This one-pager note presents key findings for Germany from Society at a Glance 2011 - OECD Social indicators. This 2011 publication also provides a special chapter on unpaid work across the OECD.

This note highlights the most pressing issues on families and children in Germany, as discussed in the OECD publication Doing Better for Families.

An overview of the long-term care situation in Germany is available here.

The 2011 edition of Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators enables countries to see themselves in the light of other countries’ performance.

The OECD’s latest edition of Health at a Glance shows that medical care is improving in OECD countries, but better prevention and management of chronic diseases is required to reduce costs.

This country note provides information on latest trends in income inequalities as well as key findings from the 2011 OECD report "Divided We Stand: Why Inequality Keeps Rising".

Germany recovered rapidly from the 2008-09 recession, with GDP topping pre-crisis rates during 2011 and unemployment falling significantly. Public finances are sound, but further reforms are needed to transform its growth model to thrive as a knowledge-based economy.

This note is taken from Chapter 2 of Economic Policy Reforms: Going for Growth 2012.

The German labour market recovered very quickly from the 2008-09 economic crisis and unemployment continued its long-run structural decline in 2010 and 2011.

Education at a Glance 2012: Country Notes - Germany

Restoring competitiveness is one of the key challenges to bring European economies back on a path of strong, sustainable and balanced growth. Europe could improve its growth prospects by implementing a strategic reform agenda with a broad range of policy reforms to increase productivity, dynamism and employment.

Gains in female education attainment have contributed to a worldwide increase in women’s participation in the labour force, but considerable gaps remain in working hours, conditions of employment and earnings.  More specific data for Germany are available in this country note.

Germany is one of the OECD countries with the lowest barriers to immigration for high-skilled workers. However, long-term labour migration is low in comparison with other countries.