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This paper investigates the interplay between voluntary and compliance carbon markets, with a focus on the environmental integrity implications, in particular mitigation of greenhouse gases. It explores different types of carbon credit markets and the different ways that these markets can, and could, interact. Furthermore, the paper examines how developments in voluntary and compliance carbon markets can impact the mitigation effectiveness of carbon credit markets, including on both the supply and demand sides. The analysis finds that while carbon credit markets could unlock mitigation ambition and action, they also have significant environmental integrity risks that merit government attention. The paper suggests some guiding principles for governments in identifying how to engage with different carbon markets, and recommends that they take strategic, focused and collaborative action. The paper also highlights potential policies that could enhance environmental integrity across carbon markets. In addition to domestic carbon markets, governments could monitor how international and self-regulatory carbon market frameworks evolve. Governments can also assess the role that carbon credit markets play in achieving their climate objectives, and identify opportunities to enhance their mitigation effectiveness.

Egypt is a rapidly growing emerging economy and a demographic heavyweight on the African continent. High population growth, land-use change, pollution and climate change are increasingly putting pressure on the natural environment, including on its rich biodiversity. Egypt has achieved relative decoupling of greenhouse gas emissions from economic growth, though it needs to further mainstream climate action across sectors and progressively raise ambition. As one of the world’s most water-stressed countries, greater use of economic instruments would help address scarcity and improve water quality. As part of Egypt’s Vision 2030, the government is committed to turning environmental challenges into opportunities. It has taken steps to move towards more sustainable waste management and address air pollution, which remains a health concern. Egypt has significant potential to accelerate its clean energy transition. While environmental information and data have improved overall, public participation in environmental decision making needs to be further enhanced. This is the first Green Growth Policy Review of Egypt. It examines progress towards sustainable development and green growth over the past decade. The 40 recommendations aim to help Egypt improve its environmental performance, giving a special focus to building climate-smart, resilient and inclusive cities.

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) could play a pivotal role in the pursuit of climate objectives. SMEs have a significant carbon footprint on aggregate, but they can also contribute to reaching net zero through their innovations and commitment to the use of environmentally friendly practices. This study develops a novel metric to identify environmental engagement, also referred to as 'greening'. The study harnesses the power of machine-learning and analyses the content of over one million websites of firms from 15 OECD countries encompassing about 10 billion words. Greening is identified based on firms’ self-declared information about products or processes on their websites. The resulting indicator is then evaluated considering firms’ characteristics. The results show that: (1) About one-third of SMEs are environmentally engaged, albeit with considerable variations across countries; (2) Greening SMEs are more productive, pay higher wages and their sales grow faster than non-greening SMEs; (3) Solar energy is the most cited action among greening SMEs, followed by recycling and energy efficiency, (4) Sectors with higher greenhouse gas emission reduction over the past decade also display higher levels of environmental engagement.

This paper presents a technical assessment of nature-related risks within the Hungarian economy and financial system. The study draws upon the OECD Supervisory Framework to (i) prioritise various nature-related risks by conducting an impact and dependency assessment, identifying key economic sectors, and pinpointing the critical natural capital assets that are most crucial to the financial system; (ii) assess the direct and indirect economic impact of three exploratory scenarios on possible acute nature-related shocks using input-output analysis; (iii) explore the different financial risk channels through which economic risks stemming from nature-related losses may be transmitted within the Hungarian financial system; and (iv) provide supervisory recommendations based on the results.

This working paper takes stock of the literature on behaviourally-informed interventions to facilitate the transition to a circular economy and discusses measures that could be pilot tested in Italy. It provides an overview of the key concepts of behavioural economics and describes the main 'biases' that could influence the adoption of behaviours aligned with the transition to a circular economy by consumers. It goes on to review the empirical evidence on the motivations that may affect the adoption of such behaviours, as well as the empirical insights into the effectiveness of implemented behavioural interventions relevant to the circular economy transition. Finally, the paper introduces three proposals for experimental pilots in Italy.

This new web format for Environment at a Glance Indicators provides real-time interactive on-line access to the latest comparable OECD-country data on the environment from the OECD Core Set of Environmental Indicators – a tool to evaluate environmental performance in countries and to track the course towards sustainable development. The web version allows users to play with the data and graphics, download and share them, and consult and download thematic web-books. These indicators provide key messages on major environmental trends in areas such as climate change, biodiversity, water resources, air quality, circular economy and ocean resources.

To better address the impacts from climate change, OECD countries are increasingly making climate change adaptation a policy priority. Assessing progress in the implementation of national adaptation policies is a critical step in understanding how adaptation efforts contribute to strengthening climate resilience, and whether they are effective. Experience in policy design and implementation has grown significantly, however measuring progress remains a challenge for countries. Building on a cross-country survey and country case studies carried out in Chile, Korea, the Slovak Republic and the United Kingdom, this report provides insights into current OECD country practices in measuring climate adaptation. It proposes a framework that can guide countries on what needs to be measured and how, and discusses the role that adaptation indicators and a conducive institutional environment can play in strengthening adaptation measurement.

Inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the six Western Balkan (WB6) economies depends on greater economic competitiveness. Although the gap is closing gradually, the standards of living in WB6 are well below those of the OECD and EU. Accelerating the rate of socio-economic convergence will require a holistic and growth oriented approach to policy making. This is the fourth study of the region (formerly under the title 'Competitiveness in South East Europe') and it comprehensively assesses policy reforms in the WB6 economies across 15 policy areas key to strengthening their competitiveness. It enables WB6 economies to compare economic performance against regional peers, as well as EU-OECD good practices and standards, and to design future policies based on rich evidence and actionable policy recommendations. The regional profile presents assessment findings across five policy clusters crucial to accelerating socio-economic convergence of the WB6 by fostering regional co-operation: business environment, skills, infrastructure and connectivity, digital transformation and greening. Economy-specific profiles complement the regional assessment, offering each WB6 economy an in-depth analysis of their policies supporting competitiveness. They also track the implementation of the previous 2021 study's recommendations and provide additional ones tailored to the economies’ evolving challenges. These recommendations aim to inform structural economic reforms and facilitate the region’s socio-economic convergence towards the standards of the EU and OECD.

Policies that foster the transition towards a more circular economy are gaining significant traction. Such policies are essential for a sustainable, low-carbon, resource-efficient and competitive economy. These developments bring about demands for reliable information to track progress and gauge results as well as for indicators that speak to policymakers and the public at large. This report presents a conceptual framework and indicator set to monitor progress and inform circular economy policies. It is designed to support OECD work on circular economy and provides a source of inspiration for countries seeking to build a coherent circular economy monitoring framework.

La présente Ligne directrice décrit une procédure in vitro permettant l’identification de produits chimiques (substances et mélanges) ne relevant d’aucune classification pour l’irritation oculaire ou les lésions oculaires graves, conformément au SGH de l’ONU. Un modèle d’épithélium cornéen humain reconstitué (EChR) est utilisé, qui reproduit fidèlement les propriétés histologiques, morphologiques, biochimiques et physiologiques de l’épithélium cornéen humain. Le test évalue le danger potentiel qu’un produit chimique testé présente pour l’œil en se fondant sur sa capacité à provoquer une cytotoxicité sur un modèle tissulaire d’EChR, mesurée avec le test MTT. Les produits chimiques colorés et ceux qui interfèrent avec le MTT peuvent également être testés par procédure HPLC.La viabilité du tissu d’EChR après exposition à un produit chimique testé est déterminée par comparaison avec celle de tissus traités avec la substance servant de témoin négatif (% de viabilité) puis utilisée pour prédire le danger potentiel du produit chimique testé pour les yeux. Les produits chimiques qui ne relèvent d’aucune classification dans le SGH de l’ONU sont ceux qui ne provoquent pas une diminution de la viabilité tissulaire en deçà d’un seuil défini (à savoir, viabilité tissulaire > 60 % pour le classement « sans catégorie » du SGH de l’ONU).