Governments need to raise carbon prices much faster if they are to meet their commitments on cutting emissions and slowing the pace of climate change under the Paris Agreement, according to a new OECD report.

This Policy Paper comprises the Background Report prepared by the OECD for the G7 Environment, Energy and Oceans Ministers (19-21 September, Canada). It provides an overview of current plastics production and use, the environmental impacts that this is generating and identifies the reasons for currently low plastics recycling rates, as well as what can be done about it.

This Policy Paper comprises an Issue Brief and Background Report prepared by the OECD for the G7 Environment, Energy and Oceans Ministers (19-21 September 2018, Canada). It outlines the rising risks faced by coastal communities, which are being exacerbated by climate change; and shows how governments can harness innovation to help improve resilience and emphasises the need for close engagement with coastal communities.

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.

Three years on from the commitments made at COP21 in Paris, the overwhelming majority of governments have not taken the necessary action to contain growing risks to the climate. With emissions on the rise again, OECD governments need to get serious about shifting their economies to a low-carbon model and stop investing in carbon-intensive infrastructure.

4-5 October 2018, Germany - Jointly organised by the OECD and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the conference aimed to discuss innovative applications of blended finance as the strategic use of development finance for the mobilisation of finance towards sustainable development in developing countries in the water sector.

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.

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.

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.

A co-ordinated policy response is needed to ensure that new and existing infrastructure networks are resilient to climate change. This Policy Paper outlines a framework for achieving this based on the experiences in OECD and G20 countries. It shows how governments and businesses can collaborate to mobilise investment for climate-resilient infrastructure.

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.

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.

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.

Australia has made some progress replacing coal with natural gas and renewables in electricity generation yet remains one of the most carbon-intensive OECD countries and one of the few where greenhouse gas emissions (excluding land use and forestry) have risen in the past decade. The country will fall short of its 2030 emissions target without a major effort to move to a low-carbon model, according to a new OECD report.

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.

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.

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.

Embracing new technologies that could enable drastic reductions in GHG emissions will be key to delivering low-emissions pathways for growth, but it is not always obvious what the big breakthroughs will look like. This report looks at how blockchain technology can be applied to support sustainable infrastructure investment that is aligned with climate change objectives.

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.

The OECD will be actively participating in the UN Climate Action Summit on the theme "A Race We Can Win. A Race We Must Win" through an official high-level side event and by taking part in a number of workshops, seminars and other events throughout the summit, and NYC Climate Week during 23-29 September 2019.

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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.

These free webinars are open to the general public and participants are welcome to pose questions during the Q&A segment. Register to the next webinar. Missed the Green Talks? Watch our video recordings on key topics: plastic recycling, climate, carbon pricing, energy, climate & growth; green finance and investment, urban sprawl, taxes, water.

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.

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.

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.

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