This report is a summary of the major policy issues raised at discussions among experts and practitioners from various international organizations and several Asian countries at the “Third Roundtable on Labor Migration: Assessing Labor Market Requirements for Foreign Workers and Policies for Regional Skills Mobility.”

Germany is both the OECD’s second-largest country of immigration and one of the main origin countries of emigrants: 3.4 million people born in Germany were living in another OECD country in 2011, says a new OECD report “Talent Abroad: A Review of German Emigrants”.

Perspectives on Global Development 2017: International Migration in a Shifting World shows that while the share of global migrants originating from developing countries has remained fairly stable at around 80% over the last 20 years, the share of developing country migrants heading to high-income countries has jumped from 36% to 51% of the world total.

OECD recommands to France to modernise and better govern labour migration

In a new report, the OECD says that France should modernise and strengthen the co-ordination of labour immigration in order to attract foreign talent and align itself more closely with the needs of the labour market.

Lithuania’s economy has recovered strongly from the global financial crisis, with GDP, wages and employment levels back up to their pre-crisis levels. The country should now focus on tackling the demographic challenge of a fast-declining population and making the job market more inclusive, according to a new OECD report.

Socio-economic disadvantage and language barriers are the biggest obstacles to success at school and in society for students with an immigrant background. More effective and better targeted education and social policies are needed to help migrant children integrate and fulfil their potential, according to a new OECD report.

The countries and regions covered in this publication are Austria, the European Union, France, Germany, the Netherlands, North America and Sweden.

Drawing on data from the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), this report reviews the differences in migrants’ characteristics and considers how they relate to the actual skills migrants possess. It examines the relationship between migrants’ skills and their labour and non-labour market outcomes in host countries and sheds new light on how migrants’ skills are developed, used and valued in host country labour markets and societies.

Furthering efforts to fight against international tax evasion and bank secrecy, members of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes have issued 12 new peer review reports.

As a further sign of international efforts to crack down on tax offenders, 12 more countries have signed, or committed to sign, the OECD’s Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. In addition, another 6 countries have ratified the Convention.

Improved governance and more targeted policies to stimulate business R&D could help Luxembourg strengthen innovation

Strong economic performance, comfortable fiscal situation and well-run institutions make life good for most residents of Luxembourg.

Luxembourg’s economy has grown at a robust pace and has enviable levels of well-being, but public policy can do more to make growth sustainable and inclusive, according to a new report from the OECD.

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.

This paper examines how three multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) incorporate transparency into their regulatory regimes: CITES (endangered species, especially tropical timber), the Basel Convention (hazardous e-waste), and the Kimberley Process (conflict diamonds)

Mexico is faced with difficult trade-offs as it pursues its economic, social and environmental goals. Like other emerging economies Mexico is balancing the need to protect its natural resources with the need to address high levels of income inequality and poverty.

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.

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 Netherlands is a global pioneer in water management with a long history of containing flood risks and reclaiming land from the sea. Yet it will need to adapt its water governance policies to meet the looming challenges of shifting demographics, regional development and climate change, according to an OECD report.

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.

For World Environment Day on 5 June 2014, the OECD Environment Directorate looks at how we use and manage natural resources.

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).

This paper presents a framework to include feedbacks from climate impacts on the economy in integrated assessment models. The proposed framework uses a production function approach, which links climate impacts to key variables and parameters used in the specification of economic activity. The paper pays particular attention to the challenges of distinguishing between damages and the costs of adapting to climate change.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is increasingly recognised worldwide as an efficient waste management policy to help improve recycling and reduce landfilling of products and materials. This Forum took place on 17-19 June 2014, in Tokyo, Japan, to identify key challenges and opportunities for further developing EPR policies.

This Global Forum plays an important role as the tool for on-going dialogue on responsible business conduct. I am pleased to announce that today, Ministers from over 20 countries are coming together to discuss how to integrate responsibility considerations throughout government policies. Their work will contribute to protect internationally recognised fundamental rights and to ensure good governance, fair regulations, and transparency.

What’s water security worth, and how much are we willing to pay for it given competing demands and constrained public budgets? asks Simon Upton, Environment Director at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Southeast Asia’s over-reliance on natural resources like oil, gas, minerals and wood for economic growth is unsustainable over the long term and is causing environmental damage that will hurt future prosperity if left unchecked, according to a new OECD report.

Poland has combined robust economic growth with reducing some of the pressures on its environment since it joined the EU in 2004. It has also brought environmental laws closer to European norms. Poland now needs to lessen its economy’s reliance on fossil fuels and make growth greener, according to a new OECD report.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on OECD governments to ensure that a series of major summits this year result in a new era of sustainable development.

Developing countries are increasingly moving towards more strategic national policies and plans, the effectiveness of which will depend upon proper assessment of a given country’s vulnerability to climate change. This report draws upon emerging monitoring and evaluation practices across developed and developing countries to identify four tools that countries can draw upon in their own assessment frameworks.

OECD can work its hardest to raise awareness on the truths of climate change, but the world won’t see developments in green technology and infrastructure unless we have eager investors backing up investment and research and development in low-carbon technologies.

Cost-benefit analyses and other quantitative appraisals are used in many countries to support decision-making in public policy, including investment projects in sectors such as transport and energy. This paper discusses the range of approaches which can be employed to value changes in carbon emissions in policy appraisalsand presents some case studies and a survey of current practice in OECD countries.

Public and private finance mobilised by developed countries for climate action in developing countries reached USD 62 billion in 2014, up from USD 52 billion in 2013 and making an average of USD 57 billion annually over the 2013-14 period, according to a new OECD study in collaboration with Climate Policy Initiative (CPI).

Brazil has made remarkable social and economic progress in the past two decades, but must now overcome important challenges if it is to put its economy on a stronger, fairer, greener growth trajectory, according to two new reports from the OECD.

Countries everywhere have committed to fighting climate change but many are still subsidising fossil fuels, investing little in green technologies, failing to put a realistic price on carbon, and allowing transport emissions to grow. Much more can and should be done.

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.

Outdoor air pollution is a major determinant of health worldwide. The objective of this paper is to inform the development of improved estimates of the social costs of human morbidity impacts resulting from outdoor air pollution in two components; namely to develop a core set of pollutant-health end-points to be covered when estimating the costs of morbidity, and to review current estimates of the cost of morbidity from air pollution.

Advanced economies have reduced their consumption of raw materials and improved waste management, but more should be done to design and produce goods in a way that uses fewer natural resources and produces less waste, according to a new OECD report.

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 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.

Fossil fuels continue to dominate the energy mix, with both OECD economies and the BRIICS still relying on fossil fuels for more than 80% of their energy supply.

“National governments must take the lead and do so with a recognition that they are part of a global effort.” Speaking last week at the Munk School of Global Affairs in Toronto, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría urged countries not to retreat behind their national borders in dealing with climate change. Read the full blog.

The OECD’s third Environmental Performance Review of Switzerland finds that despite being one of the greenest OECD countries in terms of energy supply, greenhouse gas emissions and domestic material consumption per unit of GDP, Switzerland urgently needs to address pressures on its biodiversity.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.