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Waste crimes create social and economic issues. Offenders commit crime due to either a lack of awareness of waste law or the belief that there is a low risk of being caught and punished. OECD countries are using digital tools to improve their use of resources with the aim to promote compliance and detect violation of waste law. This paper reviews the types of waste crimes, their motivations, and opportunities for governments to use digital tools for their enforcement efforts. It finds that governments have thus far mainly focused on digitalising their data collection and their exchange of information with the public and partners. Further application of digital tools can improve the connection of these tools and test predictive analytical tools such as artificial intelligence systems.

The Slovak Republic has reduced some environmental pressures over the past decade. However, it needs to do more to reduce air pollution, improve waste and wastewater treatment and move towards carbon neutrality. Since 2011, the country has taken important steps to improve its biodiversity policy. Slovakia needs to now align its strategy with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. Most species and habitats are in an unfavourable state and biodiversity considerations are not sufficiently integrated into sectoral policies. This is the third Environmental Performance Review of the Slovak Republic. It provides an evidence-based assessment of the country's progress towards its environmental goals over the past decade. The 29 recommendations aim to help Slovakia improve its environmental performance, giving special focus to biodiversity and forests in the context of climate change.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a policy approach that makes producers responsible for their products along the entire lifecycle, including at the post-consumer stage. This policy paper summarises the current consensus on the EPR policy approach. By taking stock of what's known and well established in the literature, it aims to foster a common understanding of the EPR approach and to provide guiding principles for its successful implementation. This paper makes a valuable contribution to an increasing number of policy debates and processes that are ongoing, both at national and international levels, in areas such as plastics, electric and electronic waste and textiles.

Global trade in plastic waste and scrap declined further (2017-2022) in 2022. The combined trade surplus of OECD Member Countries (i.e. the difference between exports and imports) continued to decrease. Less plastic waste and scrap is being exported by OECD countries to non-OECD countries, however some countries still export substantial volumes to non-OECD countries. Particularly several non-OECD south-east Asian countries remain large export destinations. Trade between OECD countries has increased. The value and composition of plastic waste and scrap exports in 2021 suggests that more high value and easy to recycle plastic waste was traded. Some volume of plastics waste is likely transformed into a 'fuel' via mechanical and chemical processing and subsequently shipped as Processed Engineered Fuel (PEF) or Refuse-Derived Fuels (RDF), broadly categorised under HS 3825. There was an increase in this trade mostly between OECD countries in 2021. The trade regime remains dynamic with new export destinations emerging, which deserve further monitoring.

This report provides an overview of the impacts of climate change on infrastructure , and key policy areas to be considered to render infrastructure more resilient. It discusses advances and persisting gaps in planning and developing infrastructure across its lifecycle to build in climate resilience and how this can be fostered by place-based approach. The report explores how climate risk awareness and understanding can be strengthened and become a norm for all financing and investment decisions, through standards and financial instruments that integrate climate adaptation and resilience. It includes a spotlight on nature-based solutions and offers insights on how nature can be harnessed as a cost-effective measure to build climate resilience. The report also recognises the specific needs of developing countries as requiring global attention for economic development and through strengthened international partnerships and support. Key policy insights are provided and advocate for national and subnational policy-makers to adopt a multi-level governance approach to resilience, working with infrastructure owners and operators to support decision-making.

This paper presents tagging methodologies for 22 environmental domains in the OECD Policy INstruments for the Environment (PINE) database, including seven domains on environmental protection (air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution, solid waste, ozone layer, noise and radiation), six domains on natural resource management (fisheries, forests, freshwater, renewable energy, fossil fuels and minerals) and nine cross-cutting domains (climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, land degradation, biodiversity, ocean, chemicals management, energy efficiency, circular economy and mercury). The environmental domains in the PINE database support tracking progress towards domestic and international environmental objectives. Tagging environmental domains allows harmonised comparisons across countries, years and policy instrument types.

The Paris Agreement maps out a path for internationally coordinated efforts to curb global warming. At the centre of the Paris Agreement are Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) that establish countries’ plans to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as well as adapt to the impacts of climate change. However, mitigation contributions defined in NDCs are different across countries in terms of target types, coverage of sectors and gases. This makes it challenging to assess progress on mitigation commitments. To complement the UNFCCC efforts, and facilitate the evaluation and monitoring of targets, this paper develops a methodology that harmonises countries’ 2030 mitigation targets in physical units and provide clarity on sector and gas coverage. The results are used to develop the GHG Emission Trends and Targets (GETT) indicators for non-EU countries and the EU-27 covered under the International Programme for Action on Climate (IPAC). The GETT indicators support the analyses of emissions' trajectories by describing historical GHG emission trends and comparing them to NDC emission targets, considering various reference years and indicators, including emissions intensity per capita or per unit of GDP.