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.

In order to help address climate finance-related information needs under the UNFCCC, this paper explores the extent to which currently-available secondary data make it possible to estimate private finance mobilised by developed countries for climate action in developing countries.

The IEA is pleased to announce the second event in its new distinguished speaker series, Big IdEAs, which brings global leaders and decision makers to the IEA to share their views on a range of global issues. On Friday 29 January starting at 11h30, Professor Sir David King, the UK Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative for Climate Change, will speak on "Towards decarbonising the global economy".

Despite a relatively good performance on several points compared to other countries, there is still scope for improving the effectiveness of Israel’s taxation policy from an environmental perspective.

Paris is a beautiful city but has an ugly problem with air pollution. Using 2 wheels to get to work, one becomes acutely aware of this insidious addiction to cars, and the “essence” of the problem, DIESEL.

This paper presents the first empirical analysis of the macroeconomic relationship between environmentally related taxes and inequality in income sources. The analysis also investigates whether this relationship differs between countries which have implemented environmental tax reforms (ETRs) and ones which have not.

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 provides a brief review of how national government policies and guidelines apply to or regulate the use of environmental labelling and information schemes (ELIS) in selected OECD countries. The report reviews definitions relevant to environmental claims and identifies four types of potentially false or misleading environmental claims.

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.

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.

This paper reviews the latest climate projections for West Africa and considers alternative ways in which the knowledge generated from climate science can be understood in the context of preparing for an uncertain future that provides practical help for decision makers.

The OECD has welcomed the release by China and the US of peer reviews of their fossil fuel subsidies.

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.

Estonia needs to move faster to reduce its dependence on oil shale so it can advance towards a greener economy and reduce air pollution and waste generation, according to a new OECD report.

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.

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.

One focus of tomorrow’s One Planet Summit, organised by President Macron, is “to determine how those working in public and private finance can innovate to support and accelerate our common efforts to fight climate change.”

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.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, will be in Brasilia on 21st March 2018 to attend the World Water Forum.

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.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, will be in Prague on 16 July 2018 on an official visit. He will present the 2018 OECD Economic Survey and the Environmental Performance Review of the Czech Republic.

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).

On 25 September 2018 in New York, the OECD, UN Environment and the World Bank Group hosted a high-level panel discussion on their joint initiative “Financing Climate Futures: Rethinking Infrastructure”. The project is being undertaken with the support of the German Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.

22 November 2018, London - Hosted by the Department of Geography and Environment, this panel reflected on the use of cost benefit analysis (CBA) and took stock of recent developments in environmental CBA and the challenges this presents to policy makers. The panel was comprised of some of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) authors of the CBA report published by OECD as well as policy practitioners.

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.

Meeting the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement requires a transformational change in our infrastructure systems. This working paper aims to shed light on the extent to which current electricity generation projects under construction at the global level - the "pipeline" - are consistent with what a low-carbon transition requires.

On 10 December in Katowice, the 9th annual High-Level Breakfast on Institutional Investors and the Low-carbon Transition, co-hosted by the OECD and the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), highlighted significant progress in mobilising green institutional investment, as well as important remaining challenges.

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

Parking policies have significant environmental and economic implications, which have often been left unconsidered. This paper reviews the relevant literature to provide a deeper understanding of the main environmental and economic consequences of common parking policies, and suggest policy options to protect the environment and increase social welfare.

The OECD welcomes the release of voluntary G20 peer reviews of Indonesia and Italy’s efforts to phase out and rationalise their inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies at the 2nd meeting of G20 Energy Transitions Working Group under the Japanese Presidency in Toyama, Japan.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, will be in Mexico on 2-3 May 2019 to present the 2019 OECD Economic Survey of Mexico.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, will be in Metz on 6 May 2019 to attend the G7 Environment Ministerial. He will deliver remarks to present the OECD report Biodiversity: Finance and the Economic and Business Case for Action.

Rapid economic development and climate change are increasing our vulnerability to natural disasters, and a new joint OECD-World Bank report calls for pro-active management of the financial costs of those disasters before they strike.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, will be in Riga on 29 May 2019 to present the 2019 OECD Economic Survey of Latvia and the 2019 OECD Environmental Performance Review of Latvia, alongside Messrs. Ralfs Nemiro, Minister of Economics of Latvia and Juris Pūce, Minister for Environmental Protection and Regional Development of Latvia.

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.

Fossil-fuel subsidies are environmentally harmful, costly, and distortive. After a 3 years downward trend between 2013 and 2016, government support for fossil fuel production and use has risen again, in a threat to efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, and the transition to cleaner and cheaper energy.

On 3rd July 2019, in his fourth biennial climate change lecture, OECD Secretary-General, Angel Gurría focused on how countries can overcome the numerous political, economic and social barriers to achieve the rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions needed to safeguard our common future. Follow this link to watch the full lecture and the press release.

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.

Taxing polluting sources of energy is an effective way to curb emissions that harm the planet and human health, and the income generated can be used to ease the low-carbon transition for vulnerable households. Yet 70% of energy-related CO2 emissions from advanced and emerging economies are entirely untaxed, offering little incentive to move to cleaner energy, according to a new OECD report.

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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).

I am very disappointed that COP25 in Madrid did not achieve the decisive, collective and ambitious outcomes that the climate emergency demands from world leaders.

This paper presents the results of an ex post evaluation of the impacts of a vehicle tax reform in Ireland, by carrying out a full social cost benefit analysis of a vehicle tax reform and shows that whilst successful in improving the fuel economy of new passenger cars, it may have caused unintended effects (increased proliferation of diesel vehicles in the passenger car fleet).