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Technology manufacturing plays a pivotal role in the energy transition required to meet climate, energy security and economic development goals. Deploying clean energy technologies at the pace required to put the world on a trajectory consistent with net zero emissions by mid-century will demand rapid expansion in manufacturing capacity, underpinned by secure, resilient and sustainable supply chains for their components and materials. The State of Clean Technology Manufacturing: Energy Technology Perspectives Special Briefing provides an update on recent progress in clean energy technology manufacturing in key regions. It focuses on five technologies – solar PV, wind, batteries, electrolysers and heat pumps – that will be critical to the energy transition. Manufacturing capacity for these technologies is expanding rapidly, driven by supportive policies, ambitious corporate strategies and consumer demand. The aim is to keep decision makers informed of investment trends and the impact that recent industrial strategies are having in these highly dynamic sectors. This special briefing was produced to support deliberations at the 2023 G7 Leaders’ Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, from 19-21 May 2023. It builds on analysis in the latest edition of the IEA’s flagship technology publication, Energy Technology Perspectives 2023 (ETP-2023), published in January 2023, to take into account the latest announced expansions in manufacturing capacity.

The global push for more sustainable and less-carbon intensive economic models has increased the salience of Kazakhstan’s long-standing diversification agenda. That this agenda remains only partially fulfilled reflects a number of issues that affect the conditions for investment, innovation and entrepreneurship. Elaborating on feedback garnered through a small, focussed survey of foreign firms in Kazakhstan, this report provides new insights into private-sector perceptions of the ongoing reform process and in doing so draws attention to some of the most pressing issues facing policymakers and business.

Addressing barriers to private-sector development has been a long-standing ambition of the government of Uzbekistan, with an extensive programme of reforms that began in 2017 redoubling efforts to foster the growth of a more competitive and productive population of private-sector firms. Uzbekistan needs a more dynamic and innovative private sector if it is to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities of the green and digital transitions, which create a new impetus for accelerating these reforms. Elaborating on feedback garnered through a small, focussed survey of foreign firms in Uzbekistan, this report provides new insights into their perceptions of the ongoing reform process and in doing so draws attention to some of the most pressing issues facing policymakers and business.

This report provides a global assessment and outlook on wildfire risk in the context of climate change. It discusses the drivers behind the growing incidence of extreme wildfires and the attribution effect of climate change. It outlines the environmental, social and economic impacts of wildfires by illustrating the losses and costs observed during recent extreme wildfire events. Building on this, the report presents the findings of a cross-country comparative analysis of how countries’ policies and practices have evolved in recent years in light of observed and projected changes in wildfire risk. The analysis draws on in-depth case studies conducted in Australia, Costa Rica, Greece, Portugal and the United States. The report underlines the urgent need for governments to scale up climate change adaptation efforts to limit future wildfire costs.

Colombia has prioritised the use of renewable energy to expand and improve electricity services for its population in zones non-interconnected to the national grid. Recent policies and regulations have supported this ambition with successive measures to strengthen investment conditions for distributed renewable energy, like standalone solar photovoltaic (PV) solutions and hybrid solar PV mini-grids. Still, the distributed renewable energy market in non-interconnected zones is relatively immature, reflected by the high costs for connecting new users. New business and financing models will be critical to bringing down the cost of renewable energy technologies, accessing private equity and debt in larger volumes, and ultimately progressing towards replacing existing inefficient and polluting diesel generation systems. Building on international experiences, this paper discusses approaches to strengthening investment conditions, looking at support mechanisms and de-risking instruments used elsewhere, which can help bridge the financing gap in Colombia.

Pour les responsables de l’élaboration de la politique climatique, il s’agit aujourd’hui de concilier la nécessité d’agir immédiatement en faveur du climat en passant à la vitesse supérieure, et celle de répondre aux crises ponctuelles causées notamment par la pandémie de COVID-19 et la guerre d’agression de la Russie en Ukraine. Relever ce défi impose une approche nouvelle centrée sur la résilience systémique et la formulation de politiques climatiques et économiques qui résisteront aux éventuelles perturbations futures. Ce rapport propose aux responsables publics un ensemble de recommandations cohérent sur la façon de renforcer cette résilience, qui trouve son fondement dans les travaux concernant le climat menés dans les différents domaines d’activité de l’OCDE, dont la politique économique et budgétaire, la fiscalité, la finance, le développement, la science et la technologie, l’emploi et les affaires sociales, l’environnement. On y trouvera des éclairages nouveaux sur les moyens d’assurer la résilience de la transition vers la neutralité en gaz à effet de serre elle-même, et de renforcer parallèlement la résilience face aux répercussions croissantes du changement climatique. Ce rapport fait la synthèse du projet Neutralité GES + de l’OCDE, première phase d’une initiative transversale qui se poursuit et marque une avancée majeure vers une approche de l’OCDE à l’échelle de l’ensemble de l’administration en matière de politique climatique. La présente version abrégée contient la Préface, l’Avant-propos, le Résumé et le Chapitre 1 du rapport. Le rapport complet est disponible en anglais sur le site web de l’OCDE.

Improving the resilience of farmers against external shocks is a priority for policy makers. This paper measures the resilience of a sample of farmers in the United Kingdom to assess the impact of the 2011-12 drought on their productivity and income. The analysis allows for the distinction of four resilience capacities: to prepare; to absorb the immediate impact of the shock; to adapt farming practices to a new environment; and to transform the business model, and improve productivity and income in the longer term. Results show that a single farm rarely performs strongly across these four capacities, and that those farms that best absorb the impact of the drought, perform poorly in transforming their business after the shock. While size and diversification improve absorption and adaptation, innovation is a key driver of long-term resilience to keep the pace of productivity gains. In the past, policies on agricultural risk management focused on the absorption capacity of farms and on stabilising income. Forward-looking resilience policies today need to prioritise other capacities, in particular preparedness, adaptation and transformation.

Germany has continued to improve its environmental performance over the past decade. It has ambitious climate targets with the aim to reach climate neutrality by 2045 and achieve negative emissions after 2050. Nevertheless, Germany will need to further accelerate climate action, particularly in the buildings and transport sectors, and address the triple crisis of energy, climate and biodiversity in an integrated and holistic manner. As part of its energy crisis response, Germany has taken a series of measures, which are historic in size and scope. They are set to massively accelerate its green energy transition in the coming years. It is also scaling up its engagement on climate change adaptation across all government levels and has initiated an ambitious programme to foster investments in nature-based solutions. This is the fourth OECD Environmental Performance Review of Germany. It provides 28 recommendations to help Germany further improve its environmental performance.