This book presents the research and analysis carried out during the first phase of the OECD Project on Sustainable Manufacturing and Eco-innovation. Its aim is to provide benchmarking tools on sustainable manufacturing and to spur eco-innovation through better understanding of innovation mechanisms. It reviews the concepts and forms an analytical framework; analyses the nature and processes of eco-innovation; discusses existing sustainable manufacturing indicators; examines methodologies for measuring eco-innovation; and takes stock of national strategies and policy initiatives for eco-innovation.
This book draws on work from across several parts of the OECD and explores policy actions for the deployment of new technologies and innovations as they emerge: investment in research and development, support for commercialisation, strengthening markets and fostering technology diffusion. Competition will be essential to bring out the best solutions.
Key findings include:
Sustained growth in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa will be critical for the global economy in the coming decades. This volume, based on the proceedings of a conference organised by the Economics Department of the OECD on 24 September 2009, analyses growth performance in these five emerging market economies and the prospects for sustaining strong growth over the longer term. Drawing on contributions from distinguished policymakers and scholars, the volume discusses the specific drivers of growth in each of the five countries with which the OECD has had a programme of Enhanced Engagement since May 2007.
The OECD has developed a Policy Guidance with information and advice on how to facilitate the integration of adaptation within development processes. While efforts to integrate climate change adaptation will be led by developing country partners, international donors have a critical role to play in supporting such efforts as well as in integrating consideration of adaptation within their own plans and activities. To this end, partners and donors alike need operational guidance.
The objectives of the OECD Policy Guidance are to: i) promote understanding of the implications of climate change on development practice and the associated need to mainstream climate adaptation in development co-operation agencies and partners countries; ii) identify appropriate approaches for integrating climate adaptation into development policies at national, sectoral and project levels and in urban and rural contexts; and iii) identify practical ways for donors to support developing country partners in their efforts to reduce their vulnerability to climate variability and climate change.
Inducing environmental innovation is a significant challenge to policy-makers. Efforts to design public policies that address these issues are motivated by the fact that innovations can allow for improved environmental quality at lower cost. However, the relationship between environmental policy and technological innovation remains an area in which empirical evidence is scant. Increased attention should be paid to the design characteristics of public policies that are likely to affect the ‘type’ of innovation induced. The work presented in this book is brought together in five substantive chapters: environmental policy design characteristics and their role in inducing innovation, the role of public policies (including multilateral agreements) in encouraging transfer of environmental technologies, followed by three ‘sectoral’ studies of innovation in alternative fuel vehicles, solid waste management and recycling, and green (sustainable) chemistry.