Publications

Uranium mining and milling has evolved significantly over the years. By comparing currently leading approaches with outdated practices, this report demonstrates how uranium mining can be conducted in a way that protects workers, the public and the environment. Innovative, modern mining practices combined with strictly enforced regulatory standards are geared towards avoiding past mistakes committed primarily during the early history of the industry when maximising uranium production was the principal operating consideration. Today’s leading practices in uranium mining aim at producing uranium in an efficient and safe manner that limits environmental impacts to acceptable standards. As indicated in this report, the collection of baseline environmental data, environmental monitoring and public consultation throughout the life cycle of the mine enables verification that the facility is operating as planned, provides early warning of any potentially adverse impacts on the environment and keeps stakeholders informed of developments. Leading practice also supports planning for mine closure before mine production is licensed to ensure that the mining lease area is returned to an environmentally acceptable condition. The report highlights the importance of mine workers being properly trained and well equipped, as well as that of ensuring that their work environment is well ventilated so as to curtail exposure to radiation and hazardous materials and thereby minimise health impacts.

This report provides an initial evaluation of the comprehensive reform of the Spanish labour market undertaken in 2012. It describes the key components of the 2012 reform and places them in the context of the evolution of labour market institutions in other OECD member countries, with a particular focus on collective bargaining and employment protection legislation. The report also assesses the impact of the reform on the ability of firms to adjust wages and working time to cope with demand shocks, as well as the flows in the labour market for different types of contracts and the overall duality of the Spanish labour market. It also considers what complementary reforms would be required to improve the effectiveness of the labour market reform, in particular in the area of active labour market policies.

Russia holds among the world’s largest resources of gas, oil and coal. Its liquids production has reached historical highs, yet major additional upstream investments and technology upgrades will be needed to sustain these levels in the long term. Since the IEA’s last review of Russia’s energy policies in 2002, the power sector has also liberalised considerably. However, the Russian economy remains largely inefficient, with twice as much energy used per GDP compared with IEA member countries. Ambitious energy efficiency policies have been introduced but have not led to significant improvements so far. At the same time, the electricity and district heating infrastructure is ageing and requires rapid investments. Russia’s overall energy sector would benefit considerably from a more competitive, market-oriented environment.While a number of policies aimed at modernising the energy sector and increasing its efficiency and sustainability are being developed or implemented, further reforms are needed. This review analyses the energy-policy challenges facing Russia and provides critiques and recommendations for further policy improvements.

Ce rapport se fonde sur l’analyse de données infranationales et sur la consultation de parties prenantes locales dans quatre régions d’étude et deux provinces. Il établit un cadre de comparaison permettant d’appréhender le rôle de l’échelon local en faveur d’emplois plus nombreux et de meilleure qualité. Il pourra aider les responsables des politiques fédérales, provinciales et locales au Canada à bâtir au niveau local des partenariats efficaces et pérennes, porteurs de synergies et de résultats plus solides du point de vue des mesures prises pour l’emploi, la formation et le développement économique. Des politiques coordonnées peuvent aider les travailleurs à trouver l’emploi qui leur convient tout en stimulant l’entrepreneuriat et la productivité, et aboutir ainsi à une meilleure qualité de vie et à plus de prospérité aussi bien au niveau local que, globalement, dans le pays.

Ce rapport analyse les principaux défis de gouvernance à la participation du secteur privé (PSP) au secteur des services de l’eau et de l’assainissement en Tunisie et suggère des recommandations de politiques publiques pour les surmonter, basées sur le corpus analytique et de bonnes pratiques de l’OCDE. Sur la base du diagnostic sur les défis de gouvernance (Chapitre 1), ce rapport identifie trois axes de réflexion et de recommandations principales (Chapitre 2) pour les autorités tunisiennes : i) comprendre la variété des modalités de PSP, leurs objectifs et conditions de succès ; ii) assurer la viabilité financière et la soutenabilité budgétaire de la PSP dans le secteur de l’eau en Tunisie ; et iii) améliorer les mécanismes de transparence et renforcer l’engagement des parties prenantes. Ce rapport comprend également un plan d’actions (Chapitre 3) assorti de mesures concrètes pour mettre en œuvre les recommandations proposées.Ce rapport s’inscrit dans le cadre du dialogue sur les politiques conduit conjointement par l’OCDE et le Global Water Partnership-Mediterranean (GWP-Med) en Tunisie dans le cadre du projet labellisé par l’Union pour la Méditerranée (UpM) « Gouvernance et Financement du Secteur de l’Eau en Méditerranée », avec le soutien financier du fonds fiduciaire FEMIP de la Banque Européenne d’Investissement.

Energy efficiency is high on the political agenda as governments seek to reduce wasteful energy consumption, strengthen energy security and cut greenhouse gas emissions. However, the lack of data for developing proper indicators to measure energy efficiency often prevents countries from transforming declarations into actions.This manual identifies the main sectoral indicators and the data needed to develop these indicators; and to make surveying, metering and modeling practices existing all around the world available to all. It has been developed with a companion document, Energy Efficiency Indicators: Essentials for Policy Making, as a starting point towards enabling policymakers to understand where greater efficiency is needed, to implement appropriate policies and to measure their impact.

Education and media services both provide services that embody local cultures, in which there is extensive public sector participation and significant domestic regulation. At the same time, they are dramatically affected by the information and communication technology revolution. The production of information content now involves huge costs in terms of research and development or artistic talent, while the cost of making such products available to other consumers is very low. This in turn challenges the effectiveness of domestic regulation and raises fundamental questions about its purpose, calling for an increased scope for international trade and investment, and the development of supply chains. This book provides readers with a comprehensive and consistent treatment of policy in the higher education and media services sector across a range of Asian economies little studied in the existing literature. It gives an overview of global trends in each area, followed by detailed, country-specific studies. Through comparative work, it identifies common elements across these sectors and highlights critical implications for trade policy.

Energy efficiency is widely recognised as the most cost-effective and readily available means to address numerous energy-related issues, including energy security, the social and economic impacts of high energy prices, and concerns about climate change. At the same time, energy efficiency increases competitiveness and promotes consumer welfare. In this context, it is important to develop and maintain well-founded indicators to better inform policy making and help decision makers formulate policies that are best suited to domestic and/or international objectives.This publication enables energy analysts and policy makers to identify priority areas for the development of energy efficiency indicators, define which sector(s) offer the greatest potential to further improve energy efficiency, select the data and indicators that best support policy development in these sectors, and develop a strategy to advance policy development through the improved use of indicators to track progress of energy efficiency policies. 

This DAC peer reviews of Sweden assesses its overall development co-operation performance, examining both policy and implementation. It takes an integrated, system-wide perspective on the development co-operation and humanitarian assistance activities of the country under review.

This report assesses the main governance and financing challenges to private sector participation (PSP) in the water supply and sanitation sector of Jordan, and provides ways forward to address them, based on international experience and OECD compendium of principles and good practices. Using the diagnostic analysis of the governance challenges to PSP in the Jordan water sector (Chapter 1), the report identifies ways forward to overcome bottlenecks focusing on three key pillars (Chapter 2): i) managing public-private partnership in a fiscally constrained environment through appropriate budget processes; ii) reducing the regulatory risks through supporting the development of a high-quality framework; and iii)managing and enhancing stakeholder engagement to improve accountability and buy-in. The report also includes an action plan with concrete measures to implement the recommendations proposed in the report.The report has been developed as part of a water policy dialogue conducted by the OECD jointly with the Global Water Partnership-Mediterranean (GWP-Med) in the context of the project labelled by the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) 'Governance and Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector', with the support of the FEMIP Trust Fund of the European Investment Bank.