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.

12 November, OECD Paris - The Roundtable focused on the three main pillars of analytical work: Mapping financing flows (characterising investment needs and financing capacities at country level); Blended finance for water investments (developing good practice in the use of development finance ) and Strategic investment pathways (designing investments in terms of water security and sustainable growth).

17-22 November 2018, Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. The OECD actively participated in this Conference through an official OECD side event and by taking part in a number of workshops, seminars and other events throughout the conference. Read more on the OECD side-event, participation at the High-Level Segment and the OECD work on biodiversity.

This paper explores the consequences on the labour markets of structural changes induced by decarbonisation policies. These policies are likely going to have consequences on labour-income distribution given i) existing rigidities in the labour markets, and ii) their different impacts on sectors and on job categories.

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.

The OECD, UN Environment and World Bank Group today called on leaders of G20 countries to do more to enable a radical shift of investment into low-carbon, climate-resilient infrastructure as a way to limit the impact of climate change.

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.

The large need for investments in sustainable infrastructure will require investments from the private sector, including institutional investors. This paper contributes to scaling up investments by analysing public project-level interventions for projects involving institutional investors; and presents findings from an updated database on institutional investments in environmentally sustainable infrastructure.

2-15 December 2018, Katowice, Poland - The key objective of this year’s event was to finalise the "Paris Rulebook". Find out about the full OECD participation through a series of side events, publications, and by taking part in a number of workshops, seminars and other events throughout the conference.

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.

Emissions curbs set by the European Union’s Emissions Trading System, Europe’s main tool for reducing carbon emissions, have not hurt revenue, profits or employment at firms subject to the cap-and-trade programme over 2005-2014, according to a new OECD report.

This report provides an overview of methodologies to evaluate the effectiveness of policy instruments for biodiversity, covering impact evaluation, cost-effectiveness analysis and other more commonly used approaches. It also provides an inventory of biodiversity-relevant impact evaluation studies, across both terrestrial and marine ecosystems.

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.

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.

This report offers a guide on potential reform pathways towards sustainable agriculture water use, based on a thorough review of selected past water and agriculture reforms and extensive consultation with policy experts.

This event focused on the implication of COP24 outcomes and the implementation of the Rulebook, as well as on upcoming work on unresolved issues such as Article 6. Discussions covered Common Tabular Format (CTF) for climate finance and tracking progress towards the mitigation targets and updating and implementing NDCs, with a particular attention to the power sector and carbon markets.

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.

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.

On 19 April, 2019, the OECD held a workshop on mining and green growth in the Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia (EECCA) region. The workshop is part of a larger project on mining and environmental sustainability in the EECCA region, following the production of a background paper on the same topic.

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.

At their Summit in Osaka this weekend, G20 leaders agreed on a range of priorities for which analysis and support from the OECD and other international organisations are playing a crucial role.

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.

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría today said governments must face up to mounting anger, particularly among youth, on climate inaction.

Climate change and outdoor air pollution are two of the most challenging environmental issues that modern society faces. This paper presents the first global analysis of the joint economic consequences of climate change and outdoor air pollution to 2060, in the absence of new policies to address these challenges.

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.

This paper provides a concrete example of how policy analysts can use empirical programme evaluation studies to perform ex-post assessments of environmentally related tax policies. A number of studies credibly identify causal effects of environmentally related tax policies, but do not necessarily provide all the information needed to fully inform the policy-making process.

Based on an in-depth literature review and responses to a survey among OECD member countries, this paper discusses the use of flexibility mechanisms in environmental regulations. The literature on these issues is limited, but it is clear that some such mechanisms can have important environmental and economic impacts.

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.

The 2019 Annual meeting of the GREEN Action Task Force will take place on 30 September - 1 October near Paris, in Boulogne-Billancourt at the OECD Boulogne. The conference will provide an opportunity for members and partners to discuss their progress in implementing the GREEN Action Task Force work programme.

The challenges we face in our era of rapid, disruptive change are daunting, but we are starting to develop the tools, techniques and concepts to meet them, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría said.

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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.

This paper reviews ex-post empirical assessments on the impact of carbon pricing on competitiveness in OECD and G20 countries in the electricity and industrial sectors. Most of these assessments find no statistically significant effects of carbon pricing or energy prices on different dimensions of competitiveness, including net imports, foreign direct investments, turnover, value added, employment, profits, productivity, and innovation.

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).

The OECD will be actively contributing to this important event through a series of side events, publications, and by taking part in a number of workshops, seminars and other events throughout the conference. Find out about the full details of OECD schedule of events.

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).

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.

Organised in collaboration with PLACARD, the European research platform on Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction, this conference will bring together climate change adaptation and wildfire experts from governments and public agencies to discuss recent insights into wildfire risks as well as the extent to which policies have been able to address emerging challenges.

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...

Bhutan is a beautiful country in southern region of Asian continent at the eastern end of majestic Himalayas. The country is gifted with abundant beauty of nature. It is known for their scenic natural beauty and tranquility around the...