Net Zero+: Climate and Economic Resilience in a Changing World

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The OECD’s Horizontal Project on Climate and Economic Resilience leverages its multidisciplinary expertise to help governments drive the transformational changes needed to address climate change. Through Net Zero+, the initiative provides comprehensive analysis and insights to support a rapid, resilient, and sustainable transition to net-zero emissions while strengthening resilience to climate-related risks.

The Need for Economic and Climate Resilience

Recent global challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the geopolitical impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine, have underscored the importance of economic resilience. At the same time, the climate crisis is intensifying, threatening long-term global stability. Climate tipping points could trigger irreversible consequences without urgent action, exacerbating global risks to economies and societies.

Key Areas of Focus

Ensuring a resilient and durable net-zero transition, protecting against potential disruptions.
Analyzing the macroeconomic impact of net-zero strategies and their effects on public finances.
Placing people at the center of the transition, addressing social implications and equity challenges.
Understanding climate tipping points and their near-term policy implications.
Building systemic resilience to adapt to climate change and mitigate its effects.

Reframing the Climate Challenge

This initiative redefines climate action within the broader international economic and social landscape. Governments can design more effective and future-proof climate policies by incorporating non-linear climate impacts, such as tipping points, into policy planning and applying systems-based approaches. Through this work, the OECD aims to provide actionable strategies for ensuring sustainable economic and environmental resilience in the face of an evolving global landscape.

Advancing a Resilient Transition to Net-Zero

Efforts to achieve net-zero emissions must be accelerated and designed to withstand economic, social, technological, and environmental changes. It requires targeted policies that drive progress while ensuring resilience. New modeling and analysis will examine the transition's macroeconomic, fiscal, and budgetary implications, helping governments implement strategies that sustain momentum toward a low-carbon future.

Enhancing Climate Resilience Across Key Systems

Building resilience to climate impacts is essential for reducing risks and adapting to changing conditions. This initiative explores strategies to minimize losses and damages from climate change while strengthening resilience in critical systems, such as food production, urban infrastructure, and financial markets. Governments can develop more robust climate adaptation measures by integrating risk assessment and long-term planning.

Monitoring Climate Action for Greater Impact

The International Programme for Action on Climate (IPAC) is a key OECD initiative that provides data-driven insights supporting country-specific progress toward net-zero emissions and climate resilience. As part of the broader OECD project, IPAC is crucial in tracking and evaluating climate policies, ensuring that efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change remain practical, measurable, and aligned with global goals.

12 Steps for Governments to Build Climate and Economic Resilience

Limit Overshoot Beyond 1.5°C
Rapid emissions reductions should be prioritized to avoid exceeding the 1.5°C threshold and minimize the risks of triggering climate tipping points. The pace and structure of the transition are as crucial as the overall reduction targets.
Align Crisis Relief with Climate Goals
Ensure economic stimulus and crisis relief spending support climate objectives, directing resources toward sustainable, low-carbon growth rather than reinforcing fossil fuel dependencies.
Future-Proof Climate Strategies
Develop long-term, adaptive climate policies anticipating financial, resource, and labor bottlenecks. Use strategic foresight and stress-testing to ensure resilience in public finance, energy supply, materials availability, and innovation.
Adopt a Systems-Based Approach
Design policies that address entire systems rather than isolated components ensuring climate action accelerates systemic resilience across energy, industry, finance, and infrastructure.
Tailor Policies to National and Local Contexts
Implement a balanced mix of price-based incentives and regulatory instruments customized to regional and local conditions, ensuring effective climate governance and policy coherence.
Mainstream Climate Adaptation
Integrate climate adaptation into all national policies, leveraging synergies between mitigation and adaptation efforts while minimizing potential trade-offs.
Address Public Finance Implications
Plan for the fiscal impact of the transition, considering direct and indirect financial effects while adjusting tax policies and public finance instruments to align with net-zero objectives.
Accelerate Innovation
Adopt a mission-driven, outcome-based approach to climate innovation, supporting early-stage R&D and targeted incentives to drive technology breakthroughs and market adoption.
Assess Impacts and Engage the Public
Evaluate climate policies' social and economic effects, ensure fair distribution of costs and benefits, and maintain clear, transparent communication to foster public support and trust.
Close Skills Gaps and Support Workers
Adapt labor markets to new employment patterns, balancing flexibility and worker protections. Identify skills gaps and invest in reskilling and upskilling programs to prepare the workforce for a green economy.
Align Financial Systems with Climate Goals
Ensure financial markets integrate mitigation and adaptation objectives, aligning investment policies, market practices, and insurance sector strategies with a climate-resilient economy.
Align Climate and Development Goals
Recognize the interconnections between climate action and development, using global cooperation and financing mechanisms to support a cohesive approach that integrates sustainability and economic progress.

By following these steps, governments can strengthen climate resilience, drive sustainable economic transitions, and prepare societies for the challenges and opportunities of a low-carbon future.