OECD Forum 2008: Key issues

Climate Change 

How can we build a solid economic framework for combating climate change beyond Kyoto?

• How can policies help encourage actions to mitigate climate change? The Political Economy of Environmentally Related Taxes; Making Environmental Spending Count; Putting Climate Change Adaptation in the Development Mainstream.
  
  
• Can biofuels offer a viable alternative “clean” energy source to power our cars, trucks and buses or a recipe for higher food and energy prices? And what role should public policy play in their development?
  
  
• What role for nuclear energy in a world of rising demand and higher oil prices? 
  
  
• How can innovation help tackle climate change? Science is working on various aspects of climate change and environmental issues, as is shown in the latest OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard -- Highlights.
  
  
• How sustainable are our cities?  How many are vulnerable to coastal flooding if climate change brings rising sea levels? How to ensure sustainable supplies of housing, water and other services in the world’s cities through the first half of the 21st century?

For more information on these issues, see our dedicated web pages:

www.oecd.org/env/cc
www.oecd.org/energy
www.oecd.org/sti/innovation

Related event:

Meeting of OECD Environment Ministers “Environment and Global Competitiveness”: 28-29 April 2008

Related sites:

UNFCCC

Growth and Stability

How to deal with risks following the shocks of financial turmoil, cooling housing markets and higher energy and commodity prices? How should regulators respond to enhance stability?

• Are governments doing enough to boost growth? See Going for Growth 2008 and its website.
  
  
• Did monetary policy play a role in the current financial market turmoil? And how did "structured" financial products come to have such importance?
  
  
• Are sovereign wealth funds a risk for financial stability and corporate governance, or a useful mechanism for breaking up concentrations of portfolios that increase risks? 
  
  
• Employment is key to economic growth. But how is globalisation affecting job markets and wages? And as governments struggle to cope with ageing populations, what can they do to boost birth rates?
  
  
• Infrastructure systems – transport, electricity, telecommunications, water, etc. – play a vital role in economic and social development. But how to ensure infrastructure keeps pace with demand over the coming years?
  
  
• Innovation is increasingly important to economic growth in a knowledge-driven economy. But how is the  relationship evolving between innovation and intellectual property rights?

For more information on these issues, see our dedicated web pages:

www.oecd.org/economics
www.oecd.org/employment
www.oecd.org/finance
www.oecd.org/investment
www.oecd.org/futures/infrastructure

Related event:

OECD Ministerial Meeting: The Future of the Internet Economy, 17-18 June 2008