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  • 9-November-2023

    English

    New Aspects of EPR: Extending producer responsibility to additional product groups and challenges throughout the product lifecycle

    Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a policy approach that makes producers responsible for their products at the post-consumer stage of the lifecycle. It has been widely adopted by governments and companies across the OECD membership and beyond and is currently most commonly used for electronics, packaging, vehicles, and tyres. The success of EPR in increasing material recovery rates has triggered a debate about expanding the use of EPR to additional product groups. Additionally, there is a debate about expanding producer responsibilities to additional impact categories, which go beyond the traditional use of EPR to cover end-of-life costs that occur at the domestic level. This paper presents a discussion of relatively novel applications of EPR to additional product groups (plastic products beyond packaging, textiles, construction materials, and food waste) and to environmental impacts (design considerations, pollution and littering) that occur throughout the product lifecycle. Based on select case studies, this report evaluates the successes and challenges that early adopters of applying the EPR approach to new product groups or additional environmental impact categories have experienced. It reviews the arguments for further application of EPR, possible limitations and provides guidance on when and how to best apply an EPR.
  • 6-November-2023

    English

    Environmental policy stringency and CO2 emissions - Evidence from cross-country sector-level data

    This paper provides empirical evidence on the short and long-term sectoral effect of environmental policy stringency on CO2 emissions, exploiting longitudinal data covering 30 OECD countries and more than 50 sectors. The analysis relies on the OECD Environmental Policy Stringency (EPS) index, a composite index tracking climate change and air pollution mitigation policies. Estimates obtained from panel regressions suggest that more stringent environmental policies are associated with lower emissions, that the effect builds over time and differs across sectors depending on their fossil fuel intensity. A one unit increase in the EPS index (about one standard deviation), is associated with 4% lower CO2 emissions in the sector with median fossil fuel intensity after two years and by 12% after 10 years. For sectors in the top decile of the fossil fuel intensity distribution, the estimates point to a decline in emissions by 11% after two years and 19% after ten years. Environmental policies targeted at energy, manufacturing and transport sectors have the largest potential impact on emissions. Illustrative policy scenarios based on these results indicate that achieving emission reductions consistent with net-zero targets will require raising the stringency of environmental policies more drastically and rapidly than in the past.
  • 6-November-2023

    English

    Better regulation for the green transition

    Climate change and other environmental threats require urgent government action. This policy paper discusses how governments can use better regulation instruments (good regulatory practices, risk-based and agile approaches, regulatory delivery, international regulatory cooperation, economic regulators, and behavioural insights) to design, implement and evaluate efficient and effective regulations for the environment. It explores the challenges governments face and presents good practices for environmental and other regulations, to ensure that all policy instruments coherently pursue environmental goals. Finally, the paper suggests how regulatory policy systems can meet present and future environmental challenges. It argues that to fully exploit the potential of better regulation for the environment, governments should implement measures that ensure an inclusive, cooperative, outcome-based and global approach to regulating.
  • 27-October-2023

    English

    The climate implications of government support in aluminium smelting and steelmaking - An Empirical Analysis

    This report combines multiple novel datasets to provide evidence that government support has contributed to increased carbon emissions from aluminium and steelmaking activities through an increase in production output and by shifting production to more emission intensive plants. While improvements in technology have driven overall emissions downward, there is no evidence that government support in this sector has been targeted at, or has contributed to, developing techniques that improve environmental performance. Removing such support could therefore contribute to a cost-effective decarbonisation strategy. For example, removing government support to aluminium smelting and steel making worldwide would reduce carbon emissions by 75% more than the reduction observed in 2020 resulting from COVID-related restrictions. In addition, the removal of such support would free up scarce public resources for alternative uses.
  • 27-October-2023

    English

    Steering responses to climate change from the centre of government - A stocktaking

    This paper takes stock of the institutional set-ups, mechanisms and practices used by governments, and in particular centres of government, to steer climate change policy. To respond effectively to climate change, governments need decision-making and co-ordinating processes that reflect the complexity and pressing nature of the climate crisis, the multitude of stakeholders involved, and the need to balance between short-term and long-term policy objectives. With their unique positioning, centres of government in OECD Member countries often play a crucial role in providing leadership and co-ordination for climate policy. The first part of this paper identifies the institutional arrangements, mandates and skillsets of centres of government for climate-related action. The second part analyses the centre’s stewardship role at different stages of the policy cycle, touching on strategic planning, co-ordination, the development of evidence-informed policies, and monitoring as well as overall efforts to 'green' public administrations.
  • 26-October-2023

    English

    Did COVID-19 accelerate the green transition? - An international assessment of fiscal spending measures to support low-carbon technologies

    Stimulus packages adopted following the COVID-19 pandemic – such as the US Inflation Reduction Act and NextGenerationEU - have been presented as an opportunity to 'build back better' and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy while re-igniting the economy. But this revival of industrial policy has also raised concerns about the potential for a global green subsidy war. OECD analysed funding measures worth USD 1.3 trillion announced around the world in 2020-21 to support development and diffusion of low-carbon technologies. These measures can trigger substantial greenhouse gas emissions reductions while boosting the growth of the clean tech sector in all regions and reducing dependence over fossil fuel imports. This policy brief summarises key findings from our analysis and offers additional recommendations to policymakers.
  • 25-October-2023

    English

    Innovative agro-food industries in the EU Outermost Regions

    This paper provides an overview of agro-food value chains in the EU Outermost Regions (EU ORs). It assesses emerging trends, discusses opportunities and challenges, reviews the policy frameworks and tools that can strengthen the beneficial participation of EU ORs in international agro-food value chains, and proposes priority actions. The paper is developed within the framework of the EU-OECD project on Global Outermost Regions.
  • 17-October-2023

    English

    Assessing greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption in SMEs - Towards a pilot dashboard of SME greening and green entrepreneurship indicators

    This paper presents the first estimates of the OECD project 'Towards a pilot dashboard of SME greening and green entrepreneurship indicators', which is part of broader work of the OECD Committee on SMEs and Entrepreneurship (CSMEE) to support governments in making SMEs active players in the green transition. The paper first explains the rationale behind this measurement exercise, which relates to the importance of monitoring carbon emissions and energy consumption in the business sector, including SMEs, as governments strive to achieve their climate objectives. Thereafter, it gives an overview of the project methodology to produce estimates on the environmental footprint of SMEs. Finally, it presents the first estimates for the first five dashboard indicators: i) SME share of greenhouse gas emissions in the business sector; ii) SME share of energy consumption in the business sector; iii) SME greenhouse gas emissions (carbon) intensity; iv) SME energy intensity; v) SME energy price burden The paper also presents evidence on real SME electricity and gas consumption in Denmark thanks to pilot work with Statistics Denmark. A final Annex explains the project methodology in detail.
  • 12-October-2023

    English

    Methodological Guidelines for Environmentally Related Tax Revenue Accounts

    This report presents the OECD methodological guidelines for compiling Environmentally Related Tax Revenue accounts. The guidelines are in line with the System of Environmental Economic Accounting and ensure consistency with national and international data sources and manuals. The OECD guidelines are based on those of Eurostat with refinements and additional memo items. First, revenue from greenhouse gas taxes is split into two sub-categories: an energy-related part (recorded as an energy tax) and a non-energy-related part (recorded as a pollution tax). Second, four 'memo items' are introduced to enhance the relevance of the accounts for policy work: (i) certain land taxes, (ii) taxes on oil and natural gas extraction, (iii) taxes on the resource rent and (iv) elevated VAT levied on environmentally related tax bases. The practical application of these guidelines was successfully pilot-tested in 2018-19, and the guidelines were implemented in the 2019 and 2021 rounds of data collection from OECD member and partner countries. The results show that it is feasible to compile the accounts, including the refinements and the additions outlined in this document, across OECD and beyond.
  • 12-October-2023

    English

    Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in Freshwater - Monitoring and Regulating Water Quality

    Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are contaminants of emerging environmental and health concern that have been detected in freshwater, wastewater and drinking water. They interfere with the endocrine system in humans and wildlife, and produce adverse effects such as developmental, reproductive, neurological and immune effects. Their presence in water raises concerns for the integrity of ecosystems and biodiversity. Addressing the challenges of EDCs in water is particularly complex due to their ability to trigger adverse effects at very low concentrations, their potency in mixtures with other chemicals, and the vast range of sources and entryways of this group of chemicals into the environment. This report presents new water quality monitoring methods, such as bioassays and non-targeted analysis, that are well equipped to capture the impacts of EDCs in water. These new methods supplement the traditional substance-by-substance chemical analysis of water quality. The report also outlines policy instruments to manage the chemicals’ lifecycle from source to end-of-pipe. It proposes tools and regulations that respond to the negative effects of endocrine disruption, even if the culprit chemical is still unknown. The analysis draws on case studies from OECD countries to provide practical examples and concrete policy actions.
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