Latest Documents

Extended Producer Responsibility

OECD defines Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) as an environmental policy approach in which a producer's responsibility for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of a product's life cycle.

Methodological Guidelines for Environmentally Related Tax Revenue Accounts

Green Talks LIVE - Taming Wildfires in the Context of Climate Change

These free webinars are open to the general public and participants are welcome to pose questions during the Q&A segment. Topics covers air pollution, biodiversity, chemicals, climate change, carbon pricing, finance and investment, waste, water and more. Video recording of the webinar: Taming Wildfires in the Context of Climate Change (forthcoming).

The costs and benefits of regulating chemicals

The OECD has set up the Surveys on Willingness-to-Pay to Avoid Negative Chemicals-Related Health Impacts (SWACHE) project to establish comparable values for the willingness-to-pay to avoid negative health effects due to exposure to chemicals. The health effects valued include asthma, infertility, IQ loss, chronic kidney disease, and very low birth weight.

Behavioural and Experimental Economics for Environmental Policy

This project investigates how behavioural economics can inform the design of “norm-based” environmental policies and “behaviourally robust” markets for ecosystem services. This work is part of a broader effort of a project that seeks to identify areas where behavioural economics can have the greatest impact on environmental policy design.

Environmental taxation

A broader use of environmental taxation or emission trading systems would be one of the most efficient and effective ways of promoting green growth.

Blog: Carbon tax, emissions reduction and employment: Some evidence from France

In September 2019 the French Parliament adopted a law on energy and climate which enshrines into French law the objective of carbon neutrality by 2050, in line with the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. To ensure this target is met, the French government developed a “National Low Carbon Strategy”, which acts as a roadmap for implementing a low-emission transition in each sector of the economy.

Joint effects of energy prices and carbon taxes on environmental and economic performance: Evidence from the French manufacturing sector - Environment Working Paper

The paper estimates the effect of energy prices and carbon taxation on firms’ environmental and economic performance. The analysis uses data on 8 000 firms that are representative of the French manufacturing sector and observed during 2001-2016. This paper also measures the causal impact of the carbon tax over the period 2014-2018 and simulates the effect of further increasing the carbon tax rate from €45 to €86 per tonne of CO2.

An assessment of the social costs and benefits of vehicle tax reform in Ireland - Environment Working Paper

This paper presents the results of an ex post evaluation of the impacts of a vehicle tax reform in Ireland, by carrying out a full social cost benefit analysis of a vehicle tax reform and shows that whilst successful in improving the fuel economy of new passenger cars, it may have caused unintended effects (increased proliferation of diesel vehicles in the passenger car fleet).

Flexibility mechanisms in environmental regulations: Their use and impacts - Environment Working Paper

Based on an in-depth literature review and responses to a survey among OECD member countries, this paper discusses the use of flexibility mechanisms in environmental regulations. The literature on these issues is limited, but it is clear that some such mechanisms can have important environmental and economic impacts.