Environment

Focus

• 1
  

  Mainstreaming biodiversity

  10% of terrestrial biodiversity is projected to be lost by 2050 and pressures on marine ecosystems are on the rise. The OECD will participate at the Convention of Biological Diversity in Cancun (COP13) to discuss how to mitigate these trends, with mainstreaming biodiversity as the key theme.

• 2
  

  Action on climate change

  Each country must spell out a credible roadmap for action consistent with the goal of holding the average temperature increase to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 °C.”; said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría

• 3
  

  Costs of Inaction and Resource scarcity (CIRCLE)

  It is clear that further degradation of the environment and natural capital can compromise prospects for future economic growth and human well-being. The CIRCLE project aims to identify how feedback from poor environmental quality, climatic change and resource scarcity affect economic growth, and how policies may alter this.

• 4
  

  The water challenge: OECD's response

  Without new policies, by 2050, freshwater availability will be further strained and 3.9 billion people will be living in river basins experiencing severe water stress.

• 5
  

  Spatial Planning INstruments and the Environment (SPINE)

  People, economic activity, and environmental amenities are unevenly distributed across space. Spatial planning, the public policy toolbox used to alter their distribution, is one domain where the tensions between economic and environmental objectives are particularly acute and expected to escalate as demand for housing, energy, food, fibre, but also ecosystem services, are growing.