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Climate shocks such as extreme floods and storms, droughts and heatwaves have complex, inter-connected and far-reaching consequences across multiple policy sectors and systems. Shocks in other systems, such as financial or health crises, can, in turn, affect climate challenges. Applying a systems approach to climate change helps policymakers understand linkages between issues that are treated separately and propose cross-sectoral, multi-disciplinary solutions in cities. This paper proposes a four-pronged policy framework to disentangle the different elements of economic, social, environmental, and other systems operating in cities, maximise co-benefits and manage trade-offs across systems, and build systemic climate resilience in cities. It summarises the contribution of the Working Party on Urban Policy and the Regional Development Policy Committee to the 2021-2022 OECD Horizontal Project on 'Building Climate and Economic Resilience in the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy'.

Stressors that exhibit immunosuppression might act by different mechanisms, i.e. alter the number of cells involved in the immune response, the ability of the cells to produce cytokines, chemokines, antibodies or growth factors, the composition of the subpopulations of cells present at the site of the response, or the function of the cells. This Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) describes how impairment of the signaling receptor IL-1R1 in T cells can lead to impaired T cell activation and antibody production, leading to increased susceptibility to infection. The AOP focuses on the blocking of binding of IL-1 to IL-1R1, leading to the Inhibition of Nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB). This AOP is referred to as AOP 277 in the Collaborative Adverse Outcome Pathway Wiki (AOP-Wiki).

The present Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) describes the linkage between lung cancer initiated from the Deposition of Energy (DoE) into a cell by a prototypic stressor such as radon gas. The multiple ionization events from DoE can directly break DNA double strands and initiate the activation of repair machinery through non-homologous end joining, an efficient, but error-prone process. When double strand breaks occur in DNA regions that transcribe critical genes, mutations generated by faulty repair may alter the function of these genes or cause chromosomal aberrations. These events alter the functions of many gene products and affect cell growth, cycling, and apoptosis. Cell proliferation is then promoted by escaping the regulatory control and forming hyperplasia in lung epithelial cells, leading eventually to lung cancer. Although the weight of evidence for this AOP is strong, uncertainties remain on dose-effect relationships across KEs, particularly for DoE delivered at low doses and dose-rates.

The cardiovascular system is the first functional organ system to develop in the vertebrate embryo, reflecting its critical role during normal development and pregnancy. This Adverse Outcome Pathway focuses on the regulation and disruption of vasculogenesis-angiogenesis during embryonic development via disruption of the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) signaling pathway. This pathway is a critical regulatory system for assembly of embryonic blood vessels. Genetic studies have shown that perturbing the VEGF signaling system can invoke varying degrees of adverse consequences, ranging from congenital angiodysplasia to fetal malformations and embryolethality. This AOP is referred to as AOP 43 in the Collaborative Adverse Outcome Pathway Wiki (AOP-Wiki).

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are contaminants of emerging environmental and health concern that have been detected in freshwater, wastewater and drinking water. They interfere with the endocrine system in humans and wildlife, and produce adverse effects such as developmental, reproductive, neurological and immune effects. Their presence in water raises concerns for the integrity of ecosystems and biodiversity. Addressing the challenges of EDCs in water is particularly complex due to their ability to trigger adverse effects at very low concentrations, their potency in mixtures with other chemicals, and the vast range of sources and entryways of this group of chemicals into the environment. This report presents new water quality monitoring methods, such as bioassays and non-targeted analysis, that are well equipped to capture the impacts of EDCs in water. These new methods supplement the traditional substance-by-substance chemical analysis of water quality. The report also outlines policy instruments to manage the chemicals’ lifecycle from source to end-of-pipe. It proposes tools and regulations that respond to the negative effects of endocrine disruption, even if the culprit chemical is still unknown. The analysis draws on case studies from OECD countries to provide practical examples and concrete policy actions.

This report presents the OECD methodological guidelines for compiling Environmentally Related Tax Revenue accounts. The guidelines are in line with the System of Environmental Economic Accounting and ensure consistency with national and international data sources and manuals. The OECD guidelines are based on those of Eurostat with refinements and additional memo items. First, revenue from greenhouse gas taxes is split into two sub-categories: an energy-related part (recorded as an energy tax) and a non-energy-related part (recorded as a pollution tax). Second, four 'memo items' are introduced to enhance the relevance of the accounts for policy work: (i) certain land taxes, (ii) taxes on oil and natural gas extraction, (iii) taxes on the resource rent and (iv) elevated VAT levied on environmentally related tax bases. The practical application of these guidelines was successfully pilot-tested in 2018-19, and the guidelines were implemented in the 2019 and 2021 rounds of data collection from OECD member and partner countries. The results show that it is feasible to compile the accounts, including the refinements and the additions outlined in this document, across OECD and beyond.

This report presents developments of the work of the Inclusive Forum on Carbon Mitigation Approaches (IFCMA) since its official launch in February 2023.