Reports

Much has changed in the space economy over the past decade, with an ever-growing number of countries and business enterprises involved in space activities. Despite progress made in the quality and availability of data, the international comparability of space economy statistics remains limited. A decade after its first publication, it is therefore time to provide an up-to-date revision of the OECD Handbook on Measuring the Space Economy to reflect the changing landscape of space activities, space technologies and subsequent evolving user needs. This new edition aims to encourage and facilitate data collection among both incumbents and new actors involved in space activities, respond to the needs of the public agencies that still fund the bulk of space programmes, and support industry and private decision-takers who will also benefit from improved statistics on the space economy.

Gender equality and environmental sustainability are gaining political momentum as global challenges that require urgent action at the national and international levels. Both figure prominently, albeit with limited interlinkages, in the United Nations Agenda 2030, and gender equality considerations are slowly making their way into international environmental and climate commitments. An integrated approach to gender equality and environmental sustainability – i.e. recognising the gender-environment nexus – could help to alleviate limitations to gender equality and women’s economic empowerment and enhance their roles in environmental sustainability and green growth. Likewise, enhancing gender equality, and women’s economic empowerment and decision-making, can lead to better environmental and climate outcomes and policies. This report observes the gender-environment nexus in the Greek policy framework. It assesses environmental and climate policies through a gender lens, and gender equality policies through an environmental lens. It focuses mainly on policies and measures that could support women’s economic empowerment in environment-related sectors; women’s environmental leadership and decision making; and mainstreaming gender equality and environmental sustainability in policy tools. It proposes a series of recommendations that, if taken on board, could support integrating the gender-environment nexus into Greece’s national policies.

The National Dialogue on Water in Thailand was initiated in 2021 under the regional initiative with the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Korea (MoE), the Asia Water Council (AWC) and the OECD. The Dialogue covers two main topics selected by the Government of Thailand (ONWR). The first one is water demand management, with a focus on the Eastern Economic Corridor. The second one is financing water supply and sanitation. Both combine to support a sustainable and resilient development pathway for Thailand's fast-growing economy. The analyses and policy recommendations cover issues such as the design of economic policy instruments, water allocation regimes, increasing demand for reclaimed water, or benchmarking the performance of water utilities, and blended finance for water supply and sanitation services. They are informed by the expertise of Thai stakeholders, the OECD and the Asia Water Council. They can be a source of inspiration in other contexts in South East Asia and globally.

Italy's National Action Plan for Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development (PCSD) brings together the institutional mechanisms, evaluation frameworks and coherence tools needed to integrate sustainable development into government policy making. This Action Plan shows how to streamline existing mechanisms to improve policy coherence across levels of government and to involve civil society more closely in policy formulation. It also suggests how to make the most of complementarities across existing data collection efforts. The Action Plan includes suggestions for better linking mandates across departments and levels of government to avoid overlap and make greater progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Finally, it provides targets and measurable processes for each action to help track progress.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected Fiji, hitting at backbone economic sectors, such as international tourism and export fisheries. It has also brought to the fore the need to embark on a more sustainable model of development. This report examines Fiji’s economic and sustainability trends, as well as the governance and financing of its ocean economy before and during the COVID-19 crisis. It provides an initial mapping of promising initiatives and funding instruments that can be developed and scaled up to foster a sustainable blue recovery, focusing on four main areas: sustainable fisheries, sustainable tourism, green shipping and marine conservation.

Over the past decade, the United Kingdom has reduced several environmental pressures while growing its economy. Ahead of its presidency of the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties, it has led the way by raising its national ambition. However, air pollution, deteriorating natural assets and missed biodiversity targets are all concerns. Further efforts are needed to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, prepare for climate change, reverse biodiversity loss and ensure a more resource-efficient circular economy. Strengthening co‑ordination between the United Kingdom and devolved governments, as well as enhancing coherence between sectoral and environmental policies will be key. This is the third Environmental Performance Review of the United Kingdom. It evaluates progress towards green growth, with a special chapter focusing on waste, materials management and the circular economy.

Combatting climate change is among the most critical issues on the global policy agenda. The transition towards a greener economy will require a pivot towards more sustainable production processes and consumption patterns. Entrepreneurs have the potential to be a major driving force behind this effort through their capacity to develop and propagate innovative green solutions. To unlock this potential, it is crucial for policy makers to implement appropriate policies and measures that enable green entrepreneurs to thrive. This report identifies lessons from international policy practices in stimulating and supporting green entrepreneurship from three case study countries – Canada, Germany and Israel – to inform Denmark about effective policy practices and pitfalls to avoid as it implements initiatives to strengthen its green transition. Recommendations are offered across a number of areas such as promoting greater co-ordination between relevant policy actors, strengthening specialised support for green entrepreneurs and building green markets.

The 'energy, water and land use nexus' approach has been attracting attention of policy makers, development practitioners and academia in Central Asia as a tool to facilitate regional and cross-sectoral co-operation for climate action and resource security. However, further work is still needed to better understand economic and non-economic benefits of the nexus approach, and integrate it into policy processes in the countries. Based on desk research and consultations with stakeholders in Central Asia, this paper aims to highlight several possible action points for promoting the energy-water-land use nexus approach in the face of a changing climate in the region.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has an unprecedented ambition, but also confronts countries with an enormous challenge given the complex and integrated nature of the Agenda with its 17 Goals, underpinned by 169 Targets. To assist national governments with their implementation, the OECD has developed a unique methodology allowing comparison of progress across SDG goals and targets, and also over time. Based on the Global indicator framework for the Sustainable Development Goals and leveraging UN and OECD data, this report provides a high-level assessment of OECD Member countries’ performance across the Goals and Targets of the 2030 Agenda. The report evaluates the distance that OECD countries need to travel to meet SDG targets for which data is currently available, but it goes one step further and deepens the analysis by identifying long-term trends, considering also how these trends may be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. By providing a high-level overview of countries’ strengths and weaknesses in performance across the SDGs, it aims to support Member countries in navigating the SDGs and in setting their own priorities for action within the broad 2030 Agenda.