International Milestones (UN, OECD, EU)

2. OECD - Milestones in Sustainable Development
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is comprised of 30 member countries and is active in all areas of economic and social relevance (energy, environment, development policy, trade, transport, taxation, free market).
The OECD has a “Round Table“ on Sustainable Development, which gathers ministers, heads of international organizations, representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and business representatives.

The OECD determined the following key results for the implementation of Sustainable Development (2001-2004):

Environmental-economic interface:
• Less emphasis on regulations, as they are not the most efficient ways to reduce emissions and thus increase costs for society. However in some cases regulations are the appropriate instrument
• Reassessment of voluntary agreements, because they lack of effectiveness and efficiency.
• Environmentally related transparent taxes and tradable emission permits that concentrate abatement in activities where emissions can be cut at the lowest level. This works only if all given types of pollutions are covered.
• Subsidy reform, as subsidies are generally inefficient tools for achieving employment or other social policy goals and many other options are available.
• Taking advantage of international agreements that allow abatement to be concentrated in areas where it can be obtained at lower costs.

Social-economic interface:
• Establishment of a social protection system to address social problems and to maintain conditions that facilitate both economic growth and environmental sustainability
• Financial sustainability of the retirement income system in OECD countries and improvement on the standards of living in developing countries

The OECD will also convene an Annual Meeting of Sustainable Development Experts (AMSDE) who will be responsible for coordinating its sustainable development work.

In addition there is the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), which is a key forum of major bilateral donors. Through cooperation, the member states can increase the effectiveness of their common efforts to support sustainable development. The DAC focus on two key areas:
• How international development co-operation contributes to the capacity of developing countries to participate in the global economy
• Capacity of people to overcome poverty and to participate fully in their societies
Here we provide information on the key conferences and reports of the OECD:

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