Industry

The manufacturing industry is a major source of global carbon dioxide emissions accounting for around 40% of the total. The shift to a circular and low-carbon production method is needed to meet the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and the objectives of the Paris Agreement. The greening of industry implies a deep transformation, as well as multiple challenges. These include scaling-up innovative technologies, investments, competitiveness, ensuring a global playing field, developing markets for green steel, and social aspects.

The OECD undertook a comprehensive assessment of the existing policy package in the Netherlands to evaluate its consistency and cost-effectiveness to reach its 2050 decarbonisation objectives in the manufacturing sector. The analysis highlights the importance of combining a strong commitment to raising carbon prices with ambitious technology support (for mature and radically new technologies, such as hydrogen). The review illustrates the tradeoff between short-term emissions cuts and longer-term technology shift, as well as the consequences of competitiveness provisions on reaching long-term climate goals.

Low-carbon hydrogen plays a key role the net-zero transition of several sectors. OECD work has recently focused on the industrial policies in place to support low-carbon hydrogen development across countries. It concludes that a five-pronged approach would be need to accelerate its adoption:

1) supporting R&D and demonstration projects;

2) increasing the supply of renewable electricity; 3) introduce a comprehensive policy package, including carbon pricing and the phasing out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies;

4) reducing uncertainty, for instance by promoting international standardisation; and

5) considering blue hydrogen as a short-term option to facilitate the transition to green hydrogen.

The report on Green hydrogen opportunities for emerging and developing economies presents a value chain approach to identify priority areas for developing national hydrogen strategies, focusing on emerging and developing economies.

The larger adoption of hydrogen in production and consumption process brought by the green transition may require the update of risk and safety procedures. The project on Precaution in the energy transition and improved knowledge for hydrogen risk regulation aims at fostering the energy transition in the Netherlands by providing adequate precaution recommendations and enhanced risk knowledge on hydrogen applications, and envisages the development of a risk-based regulatory framework to facilitate the further use of hydrogen as an energy carrier to consolidate the hydrogen economy. The programme on chemical accident prevention, preparedness and response is investigating emerging trends in accidents from the energy transition, with a final report on current chemical accident trends and specific risk considerations for future applications of new energy sources to be published in 2023.

The highly competitive and greenhouse gas intensive nature of steel production makes its decarbonisation particularly challenging. To support governments in addressing such challenges, the OECD steel policy community – comprising the OECD Steel Committee and the Global Forum on Excess Capacity - provides a unique forum for dialogue, sectoral expertise, and policy focus. Recent contributions pertain indicators for measuring steel decarbonisation progress, a brief supporting the COP27 Presidency’s call for implementation, and the monitoring of low-carbon emission steel projects.

In addition, the OECD steel policy community has convened governments, industry and steel experts to further multi stakeholder dialogue. Forthcoming OECD Steel Committee’s decarbonisation agenda will explore scrap and the circular economy, hydrogen as a new strategic input, and how steel firms are shifting to the lowcarbon transition. In addition, the OECD steel policy community is considering positioning as a platform to accelerate cooperation and implementation of steel decarbonisation.

Key Publications and website

• Green hydrogen opportunities for emerging and developing economies, OECD Environment Working Papers (2022)

• Assessing Steel Decarbonisation Progress – Ready for the decade of delivery? (2022)

• Innovation and industrial policies for green hydrogen, OECD Science, Technology and Industry Policy Papers (2022)

• Policies for a Carbon-Neutral Industry in the Netherlands (2021)

• www.steelforum.org

Contact for more information

Deger Saygin

Environment Directorate

E-mail: Deger.Saygin@oecd.org

Joseph Cordonnier

Environment Directorate

E-mail: Joseph.Cordonnier@oecd.org

Antoine Dechezlepretre

Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation

E-mail: Antoine.Dechezlepretre@oecd.org

Anthony De Carvalho

Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation

E-mail: Anthony.Decarvalho@oecd.org

Bertrand Dagallier

Environment Directorate

E-mail : Bertrand.Dagallier@oecd.org

Marie-Ange Baucher

Environment Directorate

E-mail: Marie-Ange.Baucher@oecd.org

Giuseppa Ottimofiore

Directorate for Public Governance

E-mail: Giuseppa.Ottimofiore@oecd.org

Tourism

Tourism can play a key role to deliver on the objectives of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, by contributing to local development, job creation, and the green transition. However, despite progress, tourism development has been economically, socially and environmentally unbalanced in many regions. More needs to be done to embed environmental objectives into tourism policies.

The OECD is engaged with Member and Partner countries to ensure that policies to restart the Tourism sector after the COVID-19 pandemic can also contribute to make the sector more sustainable and inclusive. The OECD G20 Rome guidelines for the future of tourism, which were endorsed in the Rome Communiqué of the 2021 G20 Tourism Ministers’ meeting, identify key issues and opportunities to rethink and reshape tourism policy in response to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report Managing tourism development for sustainable and inclusive recovery highlights five main policies to help rebuilding the tourism sector for a sustainable recovery. The report also presents a selection of 9 case studies on destination strategies to support a sustainable and inclusive recovery.

The 2022 edition of OECD Tourism Trends and Policies includes a thematic chapter focused on Promoting a Green Tourism Recovery. It highlights key policy considerations to promote the transition to the greener business models and destinations needed to transform the tourism system, and deliver sustainable outcomes in the longer term. The chapter builds on discussion at the Global Forum on Tourism Statistics, Knowledge and Policies hosted by Korea in November 2021, on the opportunity presented by the disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic, to shift to a greener, more sustainable model of tourism.

The OECD is also providing tailored support to the recovery and reform agenda in 7 European countries, to promote a more sustainable tourism ecosystem, including work to upgrade tourism statistics to include sustainability, put in place sustainable destination management and monitoring tools, and develop sustainable tourism indicators.

Key Publications

• Tourism Trends and Policies (2022)

• Managing tourism development for sustainable and inclusive recovery (2021)

• G20 Rome guidelines for the future of tourism (2021)

• Global Forum on Tourism Statistics, Knowledge and Policies Highlights (2021)

Contact for more information

Jane Stacey

Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities

Email: Jane.Stacey@oecd.org