The Environment Directorate provides governments with the analytical basis to develop policies that are effective and economically efficient, including through country performance reviews, data collection, policy analysis, projections and modelling, and the development of common approaches.

What's new

People and Biodiversity Policies: Impacts, Issues and Strategies for Policy Action

14-May-2008

This book is designed to help policy makers put together strategies for anticipating distributive impacts of biodiversity policy across different groups; and for selecting processes and instruments that manage distributive impacts without compromising conservation and use objectives.

Business and Environment

13-May-2008

Government ministers from around the world met at OECD headquarters in Paris to talk about crunch issues for the environment. One of the most important: getting business more involved in greening the economy.

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Meeting of the Environment Policy Committee at Ministerial Level "Environment and Global Competitiveness"

29-Apr-2008

Ministers discussed environmental priorities and the challenges and opportunities created by the current economic situation and policies, including on biodiversity and climate change.

OECD-UNEP Conference on Resource Efficiency

from 23-Apr-2008 to 25-Apr-2008

The conference explored how improved resource efficiency can reduce negative environmental impacts of resource exploitation, transportation, use and disposal, while at the same time securing adequate supplies of materials to sustain economic growth. It focussed on economic efficiency and environmental effectiveness of resource use, as well as the related development and governance aspects.

 

Tackling climate change

22-Apr-2008

The “worst-case” scenario, set out in the 2008 OECD Environmental Outlook, should be enough to grab anyone’s full attention. Fortunately, there is a far brighter prospect the OECD can foresee, which the world’s environment ministers will focus on at the important OECD ministerial conference in April. Read the OECD Observer editorial by Secretary-General Angel Gurría.

OECD helps governments and industry save money, time and animals for chemical tests

15-Apr-2008

The chemical industry and OECD governments test hundreds of chemicals every year,  spending millions of euros to ensure the safety of chemical products. Now OECD has devised an innovative product, the (Q)SAR Application Toolbox, to estimate the hazardous properties of chemicals by analysing their molecular structure. 

Factbook 2008 shows wide variations in productivity across OECD countries

08-Apr-2008

Labour productivity has grown strongly in the Slovak Republic, Hungary and Korea in recent years while  growth rates in some other OECD countries such as Italy, Mexico, Portugal and New Zealand have slowed markedly.

See more news and events… Top of page

Ministers' roundtable on climate change

What action are OECD governments taking to address climate change?

See the answers from Denmark, France, Italy, Japan and Mexico

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