Rail transport accounts for 80% of all freight in Russia and its performance is critical to overall economic growth. Though the railways have been starved of investment they are now in the process of rapid reform, and maintaining momentum will be crucial

Renewable energy has received high levels of attention in recent years as an alternative to traditional hydrocarbons.  Governments, industry and consumers have adopted and promoted renewable technologies in response to concerns about energy security and the environment, and as a solution to...

Progress towards Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST) will require widespread acceptance of the need for EST, and a mix of measures designed to achieve the necessary changes to overcome the barriers to EST. Some of the measures will be hard measures, which include taxes, emission...

In the face of rapid population ageing and the trend towards early retirement, there is a need to promote better employment opportunities for older people. Much has been said about the need for reform of old-age pensions and early retirement schemes but this may not be sufficient to raise...

Cross-border education is undergoing new and growing developments such as e-learning, for-profit providers, joint campuses and transnational consortia. These changes are challenging existing national quality assurance and accreditation frameworks and agencies

Expectations are running high for significant outcomes on the temporary movement of natural persons to supply services - known as mode 4 - in the current WTO services negotiations. Powerful drivers for liberalisation exist, such as increased trade and investment, strengthened global business...

The European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) has embarked on a new approach to strengthening its work on road safety. To this end, the ECMT works to contribute more effectively to the debate on the improvement of road safety policies by conducting peer reviews of the measures and...

This volume contains a selection of the health policy research and analytic studies constituting the OECD Health Project. These policy studies, along with other volumes, serve as the main source material for the synthesis report of the Project, Towards High-Performing Health Systems

Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a worldwide problem which is increasing in scale. But the international community lacks hard evidence because IUU fishing activities are camouflaged and information and data are therefore often anecdotal

The 21st century could see the switch from the fossil fuel to the biological based economy. Agriculture could be rejuvenated as a source of bioenergy and biomaterials, as well as providing food and fibres. The relative costs of fossil fuels and agricultural biomass will clearly play a key role