THE COUNCIL,
HAVING REGARD to the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development of 14 December 1960;
HAVING REGARD to the Rules of Procedure of the Organisation;
HAVING REGARD to the Resolution of the Council on Partnerships in OECD Bodies [C(2012)100/REV2/FINAL];
HAVING REGARD to the establishment of the Environment Committee on 22 July 1970 [C(70)135], renamed Environment Policy Committee on 12 March 1992 [C(92)25/FINAL], whose mandate was last renewed and revised in 2018 [C(2018)139];
RECOGNISING that without policy changes, the continuation of business-as-usual economic growth and development will have serious adverse impacts on natural resources and ecosystem services and that these impacts pose risks to human health and well-being;
RECOGNISING the necessity for both developed and developing countries to move to a greener growth and sustainable development path that is consistent with the protection of the environment and a sustainable use of scarce natural resources, while still achieving on-going improvements in living standards and reducing poverty;
RECOGNISING that green growth and sustainable development policies favour the transition to a net-zero greenhouse gas, nature-positive, resource efficient and circular economy, that improves the management of the natural asset base, that raises environmental quality of life and that creates economic opportunities associated with changes in consumption and production;
RECOGNISING that the effective and efficient design and implementation of environmentally-related policies is dependent on sound economic analysis, technological innovation and diffusion, and strong legal, institutional and administrative arrangements;
AWARE also that close co-operation among governments, industry, labour and non-governmental organisations, as well as public participation and access to environmental information, are critical to building and maintaining public support for environmental investments and policies and for developing policies and regulations that ensure public participation and equitable outcomes;
CONSCIOUS that OECD Members have a responsibility to safeguard their own environments, and have expressed a commitment to assist other nations in addressing their environmental challenges at the national level as well as to engage them in co-operative efforts to confront regional and global-scale environmental threats;
RECALLING that Ministers and other high-level representatives at the EPOC meeting at Ministerial level in March 2022 stressed the OECD’s leading role as a standard-setter and source of evidence-based analysis for developing environmentally effective and economically efficient responses to pressing environmental, climate change and biodiversity crises [OECD/LEGAL/0468];
HAVING REGARD to the proposed revision of the mandate of the Environment Policy Committee [C(2023)122];
DECIDES:
A. The Environment Policy Committee (hereafter the “Committee”) is renewed with the following revised mandate:
I. Objectives
1. The overarching objective of the Committee is to support policy development and reform aiming at protecting and restoring the environment, achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at the latest, halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030, combatting pollution, in an integrated manner, and responding to other major environmental issues and threats.
II. Working methods
2. To achieve this overarching objective, the Committee shall:
a)Develop standards that support environmentally effective and economically efficient responses to pressing environmental issues and threats and support their implementation and dissemination;
b)Promote improved environmental policies and their integration with economic, social and sectoral polices in line with a green growth and sustainable development approach, and to enhance climate and economic resilience.
c)Encourage co-operation among Members and Partners (i.e., non-Members) in the pursuit of shared environmental objectives, including through co-ordinated consultation on policies and approaches, and by sharing environmental management expertise, experiences, information, and through joint research and analysis.
d)Promote improved environmental performance of Members and selected Partners through the conduct of systematic assessments with reference to their national and international policies and commitments.
e)Identify environmental trends, progress and deficiencies for Members and Partners through the development and use of environmental and green growth indicators and standardised, comparable sets of data and statistics.
III. Co-ordination arrangements
3. In order to efficiently implement its overarching objective, the Committee shall:
a)Maintain close working relationships with other committees and other relevant bodies of the Organisation, seeking to ensure that environmental considerations are fully addressed in the overall work of the OECD, in particular work on climate change, green growth and sustainable development, in a well co-ordinated and horizontal manner.
b)Work in particular with the Chemicals and Biotechnology Committee (CBC) to foster coherence with the overall programme of work of the CBC on policies to reduce the environmental impact of plastics, on methods to evaluate the health effects of chemicals and pollutants, on approaches to align chemicals and waste policies, or on policies to improve the quality of water.
c)Maintain, as appropriate, relations with other international organisations, seeking to achieve co‑ordinated and complementary work programmes in areas of shared interest and mutual benefit, and ensuring that the experience and expertise of other bodies is appropriately incorporated into OECD environmental work.
d)Ensure that the views and expertise of non-government institutions are drawn upon in the conduct of OECD's environmental work, utilising, inter alia, Business at OECD (BIAC), the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC) and relevant non-governmental organisations.
B. The Mandate of the Environment Policy Committee shall remain in force until 31 December 2028.