Browse Research

Flood exposure is increasing in coastal cities owing to growing populations and assets, the changing climate, and subsidence. This article provides a quantification of present and future flood losses in the 136 largest coastal cities. Using a new database of urban protection and different assumptions on adaptation, we account for existing and future flood defences. Average global flood losses in 2005 are estimated to be approximately US$ 6 billion per year, increasing to US$ 52 billion by 2050 with projected socio-economic change alone. With climate change and subsidence, present protection will need to be upgraded to avoid unacceptable losses of US$ 1 trillion or more per year. Even if adaptation investments maintain constant flood probability, subsidence and sea-level rise will increase global flood losses to US$ 60–63 billion per year in 2050. To maintain present flood risk, adaptation will need to reduce flood probabilities below present values. In this case, the magnitude of losses when floods do occur would increase, often by more than 50 per cent, making it critical to also prepare for larger disasters than we experience today.

This paper discusses the results of a study of measuring green growth in the Benelux countries (Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg). The study paid particular attention to the challenges of measuring the transition to a low-carbon economy in cross-border areas as they have additional levels of complexity when it comes to measuring and monitoring their low-carbon transition.

In cross- regions, data collection hardly ever coincide with any single data gathering ‘institution’. Moreover, Belgium (Flanders, Brussels, Wallonia), the Netherlands, and Luxembourg have different indicator systems at the national level, and even more so at the more decentralised level which creates problems of data availability, data (in)consistency, and hence comparability.

This report sets out the challenge for freshwater in a changing climate and provides policy guidance on how to navigate this new "waterscape". It highlights the range of expected changes in the water cycle and the challenge of making practical, on-site adaptation decisions for water. The report offers policymakers a risk-based approach to better "know", "target" and "manage" water risks and proposes policy guidelines to prioritise action and improve the efficiency, timeliness and equity of adaptation responses. The report also highlights general trends and good practices drawn from the OECD Survey of Policies on Water and Climate Change Adaptation, covering all 34 member countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and United States) and the European Commission.

Economic textbooks predict that taxes and emission trading systems are the cheapest way for societies to reduce emissions of CO₂. This book shows that this is also the case in the real world. It estimates the costs to society of reducing CO₂ emissions in 15 countries using a broad range of policy instruments in 5 of the sectors that generate most emissions: electricity generation, road transport, pulp & paper and cement, as well as households’ domestic energy use. It finds wide variations in the costs of abating each tonne of CO₂ within and among countries, as well as in the sectors examined and across different types of policy instruments. Market-based approaches like taxes and trading systems consistently reduced CO₂ at a lower cost than other instruments. Capital subsidies and feed-in tariffs were among the most expensive ways of reducing emissions.

This report synthesises the experience of OECD countries in developing and implementing policies, programmes and initiatives related to green growth in the agricultural sector, based primarily on material provided by governments.