Publications & Documents

The green transition is changing jobs, skills, and local economies. It poses new challenges but also opportunities, both of which will differ across places within countries. This report, Job Creation and Local Economic Development 2023: Bridging the Great Green Divide, provides novel evidence on those risks and opportunities across regions in 30 OECD countries. It examines the geography of green-task and polluting jobs and examines the impact of the green transition on gender and socioeconomic inequality by identifying the characteristics of workers in those jobs. Furthermore, the report tracks the progress regions have made in greening their labour market over the past decade. The report provides actionable policy recommendations that can help deliver a green and just transition. It looks at past and other ongoing labour market transitions and identifies local success drivers that can help communities prepare for and manage the impact of the green transition. Finally, it points out actions for ramping up and adapting local skills development systems to meet the demands of the green transition and equip their workforce with the right skills for the future.

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.

This report reviews evidence that overshooting 1.5°C may push the earth over several tipping points, leading to irreversible and severe changes in the climate system. If triggered, tipping point impacts will rapidly cascade through socio-economic and ecological systems, leading to severe effects on human and natural systems and imposing important challenges for human adaptation. Of particular concern are the likely collapse of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets and the abrupt melting of permafrost grounds in the Arctic, which would result in additional sea-level rise and greenhouse gas releases, leading to more warming. Based on the most recent science and consultations with renowned experts, Climate Tipping Points: Insights for Effective Policy Action argues that it is no longer appropriate to consider the risk of crossing tipping points as low-probability. Overshooting 1.5°C may likely lead to irreversible and severe impacts, which must be avoided, heightening the urgency to drastically reduce emissions within this decade. The report calls for a shift in how tipping points are treated in climate policy today and provides recommendations on how climate risk management strategies can better reflect the risks of tipping points in the areas of mitigation, adaptation and technological innovation.

Tourism has been hit hard by the depth and duration of the crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Just as the sector was starting to rebound, the economic fallout from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has dealt a fresh blow to recovery prospects. The 2022 edition of OECD Tourism Trends and Policies analyses tourism performance and policy trends to support recovery across 50 OECD countries and partner economies. It examines the key tourism recovery challenges and outlook ahead, and highlights the need for co-ordinated, forward-looking policy approaches to set tourism on a path to a more resilient, sustainable and inclusive future. Evidence on the significance of the tourism economy is presented, with data covering domestic, inbound and outbound tourism, enterprises and employment, and internal tourism consumption. Tourism policy priorities, reforms and developments are analysed and examples of country practices highlighted. Thematic chapters provide insights on building resilience in the tourism ecosystem and promoting a green tourism recovery.

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.

How can fossil fuel producers and mineral-rich developing countries design realistic, just and cost-effective low-carbon transition pathways? Taking into account the heterogeneity of low-carbon trajectories, the Equitable Framework and Finance for Extractive-based Countries in Transition (EFFECT) provides options for policy makers, industry and finance institutions in search of the answers. The report aims to help them seize the transformational opportunities linked to sustainable, low-carbon growth. It identifies ways of mitigating the transition’s impacts on fossil fuel industries, workers and poor households, and of preventing the risks of high-carbon lock-in and stranded assets. Recognising the shared responsibility of consuming and producing countries in reducing fossil fuel production and use, EFFECT advocates for transformative partnerships for technology transfer, green finance and capacity building. Ultimately, it supports an equitable sharing of the transition’s benefits and costs, both across and within countries.

Building more equitable, connected, cohesive and sustainable societies is at the top of policy agendas, but several challenges stand in the way of achieving this goal. The report focuses on three key challenges policy makers face in the pursuit of better societies: bridging digital divides, combatting harmful content online, and effectively harnessing digital technologies to fight climate change and other environmental problems. This report provides insights into key trends across OECD countries and partner economies, and offers policy actions that can help decision makers tackle these three critical challenges, together with better measurement. The report builds on previous work on the topic and seeks to inform further debate and discussion on how to ensure that today’s divides, biases and inequalities are not perpetuated into the future.

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.