Participants will have the opportunity to discuss their own country’s economy with an OECD economist working on their country, in informal breakout sessions. Please note that this session is organised by default for all participating country MPs. No additional registration is required.

The global economy has remained resilient this year, despite differences in the strength of activity across countries and sectors. Inflation has continued to moderate and headline inflation is now back to central bank targets in most economies. Labour market tightness has also eased, although unemployment rates generally remain at or near historical lows. However, risks are casting a shadow over what is otherwise a relatively benign central projection. Key risks pertain to the intensification of geopolitical tensions, inflation turning out more persistent than anticipated and a sharp repricing of risk in financial markets.

Progress towards net zero by 2050 must go hand in hand with building the resilience of people, economies and ecosystems. This includes integrating the role of biodiversity – and the ecosystem services it provides – into climate strategies, and a strong focus on tailored support for vulnerable and marginalised communities. This session presents key OECD work on climate adaptation and resilience, giving policymakers an overview of how the OECD can support both Members and non-Member governments at all levels.

While the window for keeping the global temperature increase below 1.5°C is rapidly closing, achieving this goal remains possible and is essential. Ever-stronger calls are being made for governments to raise climate ambition and act urgently to address gaps in policy implementation. The OECD works with both Member and non-Member governments at all levels, as well as with civil society and private sector actors to ensure climate commitments translate into accelerated effective action, including through aligning and rapidly scaling up finance and investment from all sources. This session presents key OECD work on climate mitigation, highlighting what policymakers can do to achieve the net-zero transition through effective and ambitious policy action.

The OECD aims to incorporate perspectives from legislators as it works on a new Strategy on Development. This links with OECD’s overall objective to support strong, sustainable, and inclusive growth and to help create better opportunities for all people, including by working in partnership with emerging markets and developing economies within and outside the membership. Some elements of the strategy could include: • Leveraging the OECD's core strengths, including its analytical capacity, multi-disciplinary evidence base and its track record in supporting effective, inclusive multilateral solutions. • Providing a comprehensive offer in support of countries' development plans and efforts. • Strengthening policy coherence for sustainable development, improving mutual understanding with partner countries of potential impacts of OECD standards. Questions for discussion in the session: • What steps can the OECD take to better support your parliament's work to advance global sustainable development? • Could you provide specific examples of opportunities and/or challenges that have emerged in your region as a result of OECD standards or policies? • Do you see specific ways in which the OECD could enhance policy coherence for sustainable development?

In today’s fast-paced, information-rich societies, having the right skills is more important than ever. How can governments ensure that adults have relevant skills for the labour market and social life? This is where the OECD’s Survey of Adult Skills comes in. It assesses how well adults can read and understand text, work with numbers and solve complex problems – foundational skills necessary for the development of more advanced skills. Overall, the results highlight a sobering reality: despite substantial investments in education, upskilling and reskilling, and a rise in educational attainment, adult skill levels have largely stagnated—or in the case of literacy, often declined. In OECD countries, one in five adults who participated in the survey struggle with basic tasks like reading simple texts or solving basic arithmetic problems. But some countries were able to improve adult skills and other countries are good at put at skills to effective use and these show how we can prepare ourselves better for tomorrow’s world.

OECD countries are increasingly investing in better understanding the potential value of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve public governance. The use of AI by the public sector can increase productivity, responsiveness of public services, and strengthen the accountability of governments. However, governments must also mitigate potential risks, building an enabling environment for trustworthy AI.

Findings of the OECD Programme on AI in Work, Innovation, Productivity and Skills show that AI is having a transformational impact on our labour markets. As shown in the OECD’s 2023 Employment Outlook, there is little evidence so far that AI is leading to job losses. In many cases, AI is having a positive impact on some dimensions of job quality. But the potential for automation remains high, with occupations at highest risk of automation accounting for 27% of employment across OECD. AI is also reshaping the task composition of many jobs and the skills required to perform them. This session will present the latest evidence on the impact of AI in labour markets across the OECD and discuss policy measures that policy makers can consider for seizing the opportunities and addressing the risks of AI use in the labour market.

This session aims for a discussion with legislators on their perspectives regarding the policy issues that will guide the upcoming 2025 OECD Ministerial Council Meeting (MCM), themed "Leading the way towards resilient, inclusive, and sustainable prosperity through rules-based trade, investment and innovation". The MCM is the OECD’s highest-level forum, attended by Ministers of Finance, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Trade and other high-level representatives from OECD Member and partner countries, as well as representatives of International Organisations. In 2025 it will be chaired by Costa Rica, with Australia, Canada and Lithuania as Vice-Chairs.

People in OECD countries are living longer and aging in better health than in the past. However, fertility rates in OECD countries have plummeted, and today they are nearly half of what they were in 1960. In the absence of countervailing policies, these demographic trends will lead to declining workforces, strain public finances and slow down economic growth. This session will examine the implications of population ageing for the labour market and the policies that countries need to be considered to help sustain living standards in OECD countries, including promoting the employment of older people in good health and women and making the most of migrant skills. The session will also discuss the drivers of fertility trends and the role of policies.

The IEA's flagship World Energy Outlook, published every year, is the most authoritative global source of energy analysis and projections. It identifies and explores the biggest trends in energy demand and supply, as well as what they mean for energy security, emissions and economic development. This year’s Outlook comes against a backdrop of escalating risks in the Middle East and heightened geopolitical tensions globally, and explores a range of energy security issues that decision makers face as they proceed with clean energy transitions. With rising investment of clean technologies and rapid growth in electricity demand, the WEO 2024 examines how far the world has come on its journey towards a safer and more sustainable energy system, and what more needs to be done to reach its climate goals. Reflecting today’s uncertainties, our three main scenarios are complemented with sensitivity cases for renewables, electric mobility, liquefied natural gas and how heatwaves, efficiency policies and the rise of artificial intelligence might affect the outlook for electricity.

Competitive and fair markets bring consumers higher quality goods and services, lower prices and innovative products while supporting economic growth and innovation. Competition authorities and governments should promote a level playing field for competitors and ensure that public policies do not prevent markets from working efficiently, while still achieving government policy objectives.

This session is open only to MPs from OECD Accession countries. This session will brief the MPs on OECD accession processes and the role for parliaments. It will also provide an opportunity for peer-learning amongst legislators from both Accession countries and recent members of the OECD, where they will be able to exchange on experiences, lessons, and approaches.

While the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) financing gap keeps growing to reach USD 4 trillions , International Development Co-operation and the sustained growth of Official Development Assistance (ODA) are challenged by shifting domestic and external political priorities. The OECD Global Outlook on Financing for Sustainable Development 2025: Towards a more resilient and inclusive architecture highlights how geo-economic fragmentation is contributing to historical poverty and inequality setbacks in the poorest countries. The OECD is supporting countries to navigate between ambition and pragmatism to renew the global financing for development agenda at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) to be held on 30 June – 3 July 2025 in Seville, Spain. The report provides parliamentarians from OECD countries with critical insights on reforms needed to make the case but also hold governments accountable for a more resilient and inclusive global development finance architecture to better respond to global challenges such as climate change, global health, displacements of populations, or threats to democracy. (Please note that this session will only be interpreted in English and French.)