Estonie

As a European Green Capital 2023, Tallinn has a unique momentum to set the foundations for its transition from a linear to a circular economy. The newly created Circular Economy Department in the city administration is a signal of this transformation. The city conceives the circular economy as a means to advance environmental goals while generating opportunities for job creation and stimulating innovation through a systems approach. This report summarises the findings from a 20-month policy dialogue between the OECD, the city of Tallinn and stakeholders from public, private and non-profit sectors. It provides the main components of existing circular economy initiatives promoted in Estonia and in the city of Tallinn, key challenges and policy recommendations to help the city develop its long-term vision on the circular economy, setting targets for the future.

This work leverages globally consistent data on parks from Google Maps, in combination with the computational power of Google Maps Directions API to quantify accessibility to parks across nearly 500 metropolitan areas in six countries: Estonia, France, Greece, Mexico, Sweden, and the United States. We combined high resolution population data from Worldpop with parks data and navigation estimates to measure: (1) Fraction of the population with access to parks within a 10-minute walk; and (2) the median walking time to the closest park. We find large differences in access to parks between countries, as well as large variability across cities and their respective commuting zones. To demonstrate how this framework can support cross country comparisons and efforts to track progress towards SDG11, we assessed access to parks by income group in selected countries, finding that the median walking time to a park is shorter for residents of low income neighbourhoods both in French and American metropolitan areas.

Many lower density regions in the OECD face shrinkage, with projections suggesting that half of Europe will need to manage decline in remote regions by 2050. Half of Estonia’s counties experienced population decline greater than 25% since 1991. Shrinkage leads to problems including lower municipal revenues, ageing, and greater per capita costs of service and infrastructure provision. Estonia is also the most carbon-intensive economy in the OECD, and heavily utilises its forests and land. To tackle these challenges, the report provides analyses in a number of policy areas to respond to demographic change in a smart and sustainable manner. A policy framework that emphasises a spatially oriented, coordinated approach for responding to shrinkage is developed. The report provides policy recommendations to make land use more efficient and spatial planning more coherent. It suggests ways to improve the transfer system and strengthen the municipal revenue base while encouraging inter-municipal cooperation. It also discusses education, the municipalities’ largest spending responsibility, providing recommendations that adapt the school network to shrinkage while ensuring access to high-quality education for all students.

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the Estonian policy ecosystem in place for social innovation, social entrepreneurship and social enterprises. It identifies the country’s key strengths and challenges and provides policy recommendations to support the development of a stronger policy ecosystem for social entrepreneurship and social enterprises in the country. Key policy issues analysed include: building a culture of social innovation and social entrepreneurship (Section 2); supporting social entrepreneurship through institutional and legal frameworks (Section 3); improving access to finance and to markets to boost social entrepreneurship (Section 4 and 5); and supporting the development of social entrepreneurial skills and capacity (Section 6).