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Le Portugal a réussi à découpler plusieurs pressions environnementales de la croissance économique entre 2013 et 2019. Il a joué un rôle de premier plan dans l'approbation de la loi européenne sur le climat et a adopté la Loi-cadre portugaise sur le climat en 2021. Celle-ci doit être rapidement mise en œuvre pour atteindre la neutralité carbone d'ici 2050, améliorer la résilience aux effets du changement climatique et protéger les écosystèmes. Le Portugal a intensifié ses efforts d'adaptation, mais doit en faire davantage pour faire face aux multiples menaces, notamment l'érosion côtière, les inondations, les sécheresses et les feux de forêt. Le pays est à la traîne en matière de gestion des déchets. Par ailleurs, l'augmentation des prélèvements d'eau douce dans les régions du sud, où l'eau est rare, est préoccupante. Il s'agit du quatrième examen des performances environnementales du Portugal. Il fournit une évaluation, fondée sur des faits, des progrès du pays vers ses objectifs environnementaux au cours de la dernière décennie. Les 26 recommandations visent à aider le Portugal à améliorer ses performances environnementales, en accordant une attention particulière à la neutralité carbone. La présente version abrégée contient le résumé, de même que l’évaluation et les recommandations officielles du rapport. Le rapport complet est disponible en anglais sur le site web de l’OCDE.

The EU Water Framework and Floods Directives have not only set the level of ambition for water resources management in Europe, but have also provided a model for other regions in the world. Effective implementation of the Directives requires that due consideration be given to their economic pillar, designed to support a cost-effective approach in member states and communities. Recent reviews indicate that there is considerable room to improve the integration of water economics within the framework of water resources management. This report captures the lessons learned from five thematic workshops co-convened by the OECD and the European Commission. It provides an overview of the challenges faced by EU member countries and opportunities to strengthen the economic approach of water resources management in Europe. Covering cost recovery, polluter pays principle, water scarcity, planning and financing, the lessons are relevant for regions and countries across the globe.

India, the Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) initiative aims to encourage the adoption of sustainable lifestyles in India and internationally to tackle the challenges of environmental degradation and climate change. This report examines how India has integrated several policies in its energy transition strategy that are aligned with the LiFE initiative, highlighting the potential for behavioural change and consumption choices to help advance energy transitions globally. It then analyses the impact on energy consumption, costs and emissions of measures like those proposed by the LiFE initiative, such as buying an EV or taking public transport, if they were adopted globally. Finally, it considers how India’s first G20 Presidency could strengthen the LiFE initiative by anchoring it in the G20’s current framing of energy transitions and initiating processes to gather experience and best practices of policies and programmes that G20 members are already conducting.

In spite of progress made to date and the significant long-term ambition announced by many countries, climate policy actions remain insufficient to meet the Paris Agreement objectives. While several international initiatives aim to track and monitor climate policies, there is not yet a 'go to' place for a comprehensive inventory of policy actions and best practices worldwide. Such a platform would also ideally serve to compare policies’ effectiveness reflecting the diversity of country circumstances. Progress in this direction would help to promote an ambitious but globally more coherent and better-coordinated approach to emission reductions through a broad range of policies. This report lays out a roadmap for data and analytical work to support this aim, with a view to enhancing global dialogue and building trust on issues spanning climate change mitigation policies and their macro-economic repercussions. Key elements to strengthen the assessment and comparison of countries’ climate change mitigation policies across countries include: broadening and deepening the stocktaking of mitigation policies; extending and agreeing on an operational methodology for estimating the impact of these policies on emissions and on potential metrics to compare them; and assessing the broader economic effects of different climate policies.

Construire des sociétés plus équitables, connectées, cohésives et durables figure en tête des priorités politiques, mais plusieurs défis se dressent sur la voie de la réalisation de cet objectif. Le rapport se concentre sur trois défis clés auxquels les décideurs sont confrontés dans la quête de sociétés meilleures : combler les fractures numériques, lutter contre les contenus préjudiciables diffusés en ligne et utiliser efficacement les technologies numériques pour lutter contre le changement climatique et d'autres problèmes environnementaux. Ce rapport donne un aperçu des tendances clés dans les pays de l'OCDE et les économies partenaires, et propose des actions politiques qui peuvent aider les décideurs à aborder ces trois défis critiques, ainsi qu'une meilleure mesure. Le rapport s'appuie sur des travaux antérieurs sur le sujet et vise à éclairer le débat et la discussion sur la manière de garantir que les fractures, biais et inégalités d'aujourd'hui ne se perpétueront pas à l'avenir.

The consequences of climate change in developing countries are worsening fast: many ecosystems will shortly reach points of irreversible damage, and socio-economic costs will continue to rise. To alleviate the future impacts on populations and economies, policy makers are looking for the spaces where they can make the greatest difference. This report argues that intermediary cities in developing countries are such spaces. Indeed, in the context of fast population growth and urbanisation, these small and medium-sized cities silently play an essential role in the rapid transformation of human settlements, not least by supporting the massive flows of population, goods and services between rural and metropolitan areas. Most of those intermediary cities are still growing: now is therefore the time to influence their dynamics, and thereby the entire design of urbanisation in those regions, in ways that limit the exposure of urban dwellers to climate shocks and avoid carbon lock-in. To that end, based on fresh evidence and policy analysis on the challenges faced by these agglomerations in the context of climate change, the report makes the case for new development approaches to avoid the unsustainable paths followed by too many cities in the recent past.

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems can use massive computational resources, raising sustainability concerns. This report aims to improve understanding of the environmental impacts of AI, and help measure and decrease AI’s negative effects while enabling it to accelerate action for the good of the planet. It distinguishes between the direct environmental impacts of developing, using and disposing of AI systems and related equipment, and the indirect costs and benefits of using AI applications. It recommends the establishment of measurement standards, expanding data collection, identifying AI-specific impacts, looking beyond operational energy use and emissions, and improving transparency and equity to help policy makers make AI part of the solution to sustainability challenges.

India has achieved major progress in its energy sector over the last two decades. Still, investment needs to scale up considerably to meet the government’s ambitions to achieve 500 GW of renewable energy capacity and energy-intensity reductions of 45% by 2030. Targeted application of public funds, alongside international climate and development finance, can crowd in investors and channel private capital to meet India’s clean energy goals. The Clean Energy Finance and Investment Roadmap of India highlights key actions needed to accelerate the development of energy efficiency measures in micro, small and medium enterprises, offshore wind and green hydrogen production. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the initiatives to date and challenges to scale up investments. It also provides a number of tailored recommendations for the Government of India, development partners and the private sector.

The communication sector is undergoing high-paced developments driven by the digital transformation of our economies and societies. Technological convergence has led to an evolving competitive landscape and new challenges arise around privacy and security concerns. Communication regulators are increasingly acknowledging the positive and negative effects of communication infrastructures and services on the environment. Moreover, there is a growing need to ensure the resilience of networks, stemming partially from the effects of climate change. In consequence, the key question for OECD policymakers is no longer whether regulatory structures need to change, but rather how. This report explores the critical role communication regulators play in an increasingly connected society. It identifies the challenges stemming from the digital transformation of our societies, the main policy objectives pursued by communication regulators, measures to address current and future challenges, as well as the importance of strengthening the capabilities of communication regulators of the future.