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

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.

Health and the Environment (Policy Brief)

07-Apr-2008

How much does the environment affect human health? Are air pollution and tainted water shortening our lives and those of our children? These questions have aroused increasing interest in recent years, particularly since the adoption of Agenda 21 at the UN Conference on Environment and Development, which drew the attention of policy makers to the links between health and the environment.

A European Approach to the Climate Change Challenge

01-Apr-2008

In his remarks delivered at the European Commission Seminar on Climate Change, M. Gurría spoke of the lead role taken by the European Union in agreeing ambitious climate goals and of the OECD support to policy makers in identifying, developing, and implementing effective and least-cost policies to tackle climate change.

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

Newsletters

OECD Health Update