Air pollution is a major environmental health threat in OECD countries, contributing to a number of illnesses, such as asthma, cancer and premature deaths.

The southern Mediterranean region faces one of the most important water crises in the world. The combination of aridity, foreign dependency, climate change, misallocation of the resources and escalating human demand make water supply a primary issue for health, economy and poverty reduction. In this context, institutional reform of the water supply sector is of great interest. The aim of this study is to examine the water regulatory framework in southern Mediterranean countries and the development of private sector participation in the context of water crisis.

This global screening study makes a first estimate of the exposure of the world's large port cities to coastal flooding due to storm surge and damage due to high winds. This study also investigates how climate change is likely to impact each port city's exposure to coastal flooding by the 2070s, alongside subsidence and population growth and urbanisation. The assessment provides a much more comprehensive analysis than earlier studies, focussing on the 136 port cities around the world that have more than one million inhabitants.

This paper, together with five other background studies, is a part of a broader research programme addressing trade and structural adjustment issues in non-member economies which was conducted as a follow-up to Trade and Structural Adjustment: Embracing Globalisation (OECD, 2005)which identified policies for successful trade-related structural adjustment. This paper revisits and elaborates on specific parts of these policy recommendations with a view to reassessing their applicability to developing countries. The five background studies; a comparison study comparing East Asia and Latin America and four country case studies (Chile, Ecuador, the Philippines and Thailand), which were conducted as a part of this project, form the basis for the analysis, supplemented by existing literature.

Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technologies are increasingly recognised for their capacity to provide a large contribution to the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades. This paper assesses the policy questions as highlighted in the relevant COP/MOP 2 decision, particularly leaks and permanence for geological storage, project boundaries and liability issues, and leakage, as well as a few others raised by some parties.

This paper provides the latest developments of announced, proposed and existing greenhouse gas emissions trading schemes (ETS) around the world since 2006. It also examines different potential design options for ETS (e.g. coverage, allocation mode, provision for offsets), and how these options are treated in the existing, announced or proposed schemes.

Strengthening enforcement and compliance systems has become a subject of particular interest in the context of designing policies that can stimulate sustainable development and economic growth. Recent discussions have shown the need to promote better understanding of the incentive structures facing firms

The relationships between energy, the environment, and development are deep and complex. The International Energy Agency has noted that energy is deeply implicated in each of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of human development. Energy services provide an essential input to economic activity, contribute to social development, and help meet basic human needs.

Key World Energy Statistics contains timely, clearly-presented data on the supply, transformation and consumption of all major energy sources.