External cost internalisation of urban transport: a case study of Dublin

Transport users do not currently pay all costs associated with their transport activities and in particular do not pay the costs they impose on the environment. Case studies on Dublin, Amsterdam, Brussels and London have been conducted to evaluate how best to meet the requirement of the European Commission in its fair and efficient pricing aims in the transport sector, i.e. where transport users are made to pay all costs they impose. The paper presents the results of Do Nothing (DN) and Do Something (DS) scenarios for 2005 where in the latter case each transport user pays for all costs they impose including pollution, noise, accidents etc. The Dublin results, from an economics model used in the study, are examined in detail; the findings are compared with those of parallel studies conducted in the other cities to demonstrate the international relevance of this work. The comparison between the DN and DS scenarios indicates that taxes on all transport modes should be increased substantially, particularly in the morning and evening peak periods. As a result of the price increases, travel demand is reduced. A practical example where transport users could be made to pay for all their costs is road use pricing, i.e. charging individuals for the use of road space. The taxation levels suggested in the DS scenario have been used in a road use pricing trial in Dublin, the results of which were published in O'Mahony, Geraghty and Humphreys (Transportation 27, 269-283, 2000), to see if the reductions in the travel requirements of individuals proposed by the economics model are in fact true. The principles of the work presented in this paper are not only relevant to environmental impact management in the transport sector but can also be applied to other sectors.     

Can developing countries benefit from innovative pricing in the power sector?

This study explores electricity pricing as a demand-side management (DSM) strategy, looking to the developed country experience for insights into the types of approaches currently used, their effects, and the direction in which electricity pricing is headed. The discussion should be especially useful for electric utilities in developing countries that are exploring alternatives to capacity expansion to meet current and future electric power demand. For these electric utilities, demand-side options are especially important under today's conditions in which the capital cost of new generating capacity is increasing rapidly, international funds for expanding power sectors are not expected to be sufficient for meeting projected capacity needs and environmental concerns over fossil fuel emissions have raised new questions about constructing thermal power plants.     

Mining taxation issues for the future

During the 1970s and 1980s the main concern of mining policies was to attract investment whilst at the same time balancing the interests of governments and companies. By the turn of the century a new spectrum of challenges faces governments and companies in the mining sector. The need for fiscal regimes to adapt to price cyclicity is to some extent superseded by the requirement that they adapt to a long-term decline of metal prices. The growing importance of environmental and community affairs in the mining sector will force governments to design coherent and comprehensive tax regulations to complement the wide range of initiatives being taken in these fields. Finally, the age-old problem of tax collection continues to raise its head in transition and developing economies.     

基于混合生命周期评价模型的我国食物系统水资源消耗及二氧化碳排放核算

食物生产不仅依赖水资源,同时产生大量二氧化碳排放,这种资源环境影响存在于食物系统整个产业链。为促进食物系统节水降碳,本文构建了包含5大类共23种具体食物部门的混合生命周期评价模型,对各类食物系统的完全水资源消耗和二氧化碳排放进行了核算与比较。结果表明：(1)不同食物的水资源消耗和二氧化碳排放差异明显,动物性食物的平均水资源消耗和二氧化碳排放强度分别为植物性食物的1.9～15.0倍和1.9～2.7倍;(2)食物系统直接和间接水资源消耗占比较为接近,但二氧化碳排放主要源自上游产业链的间接排放,占比高达80.9%;(3)食物系统间接水资源消耗主要来自农业部门,而间接碳排放主要来自电力生产和供应业、基础化工原料制造业、非金属矿产品行业和交通运输业;(4)从营养元素供给看,动物性食物提供蛋白质和脂肪的资源环境影响高于植物性食物,蔬菜和主食分别在提供维生素C和碳水化合物上具有最小的环境成本。基于本文结果,食物系统节水应主要提高生产环节用水效率,而降碳则主要依靠上游产业减排,特别是发电和化肥生产等行业的协同节水减碳潜力。同时,本文结果也可为未来基于环境影响制定膳食指南提供数据支撑。     

ESTIMATING THE VALUE OF WATER AMONG REGIONAL ECONOMIC SECTORS USING THE 1972 NATIONAL INTERINDUSTRY FORMAT1

ABSTRACT: Recent growth in irrigated agriculture and metropolitan areas of the Western United States suggests that if growth continues, there will be a potential shortage in future water resources. Compound the expansion of agriculture and municipal demands with possible enaction of instream flow requirements, a method to allocate water among alternative economic sectors in the West is needed. In this study, an interindustry-linear programming model based on the 1972 national model format is used to allocate scarce water supplies among competing regional economic sectors. The shadow price of water and the sectorial value of water at different availabilities for each competing sector is derived. Also, economic sectors are ranked by value of water at different water availabilities.     

探析我国环境税收制度的构建

环境税收制度是未来中国环境政策改革的突破口，相对于其它的环境政策如排污收费与排污权交易等，环境税收其经济效益与环境效益明显，开征环境税收有重要的意义，但在短期内，我国实施环境税收制度的条件尚不成熟，环境政策体系应该采取税费并存并逐步过渡到以环境税为主的方式。     

环境税对京津冀废气排放企业节能减排的影响

环境保护税作为我国第一个体现"绿色税制"的综合税种,自2018年1月1日起开始征收,环境税的顺利开征不仅实现了"费改税"的平稳过渡,更促使企业不断朝着节能减排、绿色生产的方向发展,为经济发展增加了助推器、提供了新动力,税制改革初显成效.大气污染物作为环境税征税对象,对废气排放企业产生很大的影响.通过搜集废气排放企业环境...     

Pricing behaviour and market power in North American non-ferrous metal industries

The paper considers the degree to which declining market power explains modifications in pricing behaviour observed since the late 1970s in the North American aluminium, copper, lead and zinc industries. More precisely, it relates those changes in pricing policies to the price elasticity of demand facing the dominant strategic group in each industry, the cost elasticity of supply and to the management's ability to coordinate or internalize conduct decisions. The results suggest that the firms in the copper and lead industries do not hold as a group any form of market power. In the case of the aluminum industry, a notable increase in the price elasticity of demand since the end of the 1970s, a sustained decrease in the concentration ratio and a rigid production process are weakening the presence of market power in that industry. The results are inconclusive in the case of the zinc industry since the determinants of market power move in opposite directions.     

WATER MARKETS AND DECENTRALIZED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT: INTERNATIONAL PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES1

ABSTRACT: Because of its importance and the perceived inability of private sector sources to meet water demands, many countries have depended on the public sector to provide water services for their populations. Yet this has resulted in many inefficient public water projects and in inadequate supplies of good quality and reliable water. Decentralization of water management, including the use of water markets, cannot solve all of these water problems, but it can improve the efficiency of water allocation. When given adequate responsibility and authority, water user associations have effectively taken over water management activities at a savings to tax payers. Moreover, water markets add the potential benefit of improving water efficiency within a sector as well as providing a mechanism for reallocating water among sectors. The key question involves developing innovative mechanisms for reducing the transaction costs of organizing water users and of making water trades. Water rights need to be established which are recorded, tradable, enforceable, and separate from land if markets are to operate effectively. Also, institutions are needed that effectively resolve conflicts over water rights, including third party impacts and water quality concerns.     

国家“十四五”环境经济政策改革路线图

"十三五"时期环境经济政策对建立我国生态文明建设长效机制发挥了重要作用,"十四五"时期需要通过进一步深化环境经济政策改革与创新以适应新时代生态文明建设需要。本文研究提出了我国"十四五"时期环境经济政策改革思路、框架与重点,认为我国"十四五"时期环境经济政策改革要深入贯彻习近平生态文明思想,系统考虑政策改革创新面临的新形势和新要求,推进建立"两山"转化和环境质量达标的长效激励机制,突出环境质量持续改善激励、突出经济过程全链条调控,突出政策手段的系统优化与协同增效,突出政策执行能力保障。继续推进生态环境财政制度改革,深化绿色价格税费机制创新,推进建立多元化、市场化生态补偿制度,健全生态环境权益交易机制,完善绿色金融体系,并同步推进完善生态环境价值核算、环境信息公开和信用体系、资源环境名录、政策绩效评估等政策实施配套能力建设,构建全面支撑生态文明建设的环境经济政策体系,推进环境治理体系和治理能力现代化。     

德国环境税的经验及其对中国的借鉴意义

随着经济社会的发展,我国环境质量状况形势严峻,环境保护体制及法制滞后、公众环保意识薄弱.目前中国环境税制的改革正在进行,但是面临着税系建设、征收方法、保障措施等方面的系列挑战.本文通过系统调研经济合作与发展组织（OECD）的环境税发展历程及发展现状,重点介绍了德国的环境税收体系,并对其特点及成功经验进行深入分析,进而对比了中国现行的环境政策及税收制度,最后指出了德国环境税的成功经验及其对中国环境税收改革的启示.本研究对于我国环境税制建设与改革、大力推进生态文明建设等方面具有重要借鉴意义.     

Towards a grand deal on subsidies and climate change

Recent studies have identified public subsidies as a principal cause of unsustainable development. Worldwide, governments are spending up to $U950 billion a year on subsidies. Many of these public subsidies fail to serve their purpose and in fact, often turn out as policy failures as they further distort trade and cause environmental harm. The energy sector is among the most subsidized sectors in the world, receiving over $U240 billion per annum of public subsidies. This article highlights current energy subsidies and their implications. The article examines: (i) the global size and distribution of energy subsidies in industrialized and developing countries; (ii) the impact of these subsidies on the economy, equity and the environment and their role as barriers for sustainable development; (iii) the political economy behind public subsidies and the various political and institutional barriers and lock-in mechanisms that cause subsidies to become entrenched in economic and public structures; and (iv) proposals for effective subsidy reform in energy policies, suggesting a global strategy to eliminate energy subsidies. OECD governments are in a position to take the lead, and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change presents an excellent opportunity of striking a political grand deal and linking the reform of energy subsidies to a meaningful participation of developing countries to the Kyoto Protocol. Moreover, if sinks are to be included in the clean development mechanism (CDM), it is crucial to include the removal of forestry subsidies in the grand deal.     

排污权交易基准价定价机制探讨

构建科学合理的基准价定价机制是推动排污权交易的基础性工作,本文以政策、管理、技术三个方面作为立足点,探讨了基准价定价机制,构建了工作框架。研究认为现阶段基准价定价采取成本定价法是合适的,并对基准价定价技术难点进行了剖析,提出了建议。     

我国天然气分布式能源产业政策发展及相关建议

天然气分布式能源具有能效高、清洁环保、安全性好、削峰填谷等诸多优点。发展天然气分布式能源是扩大天然气应用和实现资源就地转化的重要方向和选择,是我国能源发展战略的一部分,同时也能够提升天然气优化利用水平,提高能源利用效率,促进节能减排和绿色低碳发展,深化能源行业及电力行业供给侧结构性改革。对我国天然气分布式能源产业政策进行详细分析,对江苏、上海、浙江等重点地区天然气分布式能源项目调研基础上,系统提出当前天然气分布式能源存在的问题,并在合理布局、天然气价格市场化、经济政策、核心技术研发等多方面提出相关政策建议。     

Ethical Issues in Mitigation of Climate Change: The Option of Reduced Meat Production and Consumption

In this paper I discuss ethical issues related to mitigation of climate change. In particular, I focus on mitigation of climate change to the extent this change is caused by livestock production. I support the view—on which many different ethical approaches converge—that the present generation has a moral obligation to mitigate climate change for the benefit of future generations and that developed countries should take the lead in the process. Moreover, I argue that since livestock production is an important contributing factor to climate change, we should undertake mitigation measures also in this sector and not only in, for example, the transport and energy sectors. However, technological solutions do not seem sufficient in the livestock sector, leaving us with the option of reduced meat production and consumption. In order to reach significant results in mitigation of climate change, political steering seems necessary. With this in mind, I argue in favor of a tax on meat consumption.     

Incentive pricing and cost recovery at the basin scale

Incentive pricing programs have potential to promote economically efficient water use patterns and provide a revenue source to compensate for environmental damages. However, incentive pricing may impose disproportionate costs and aggravate poverty where high prices are levied for basic human needs. This paper presents an analysis of a two-tiered water pricing system that sets a low price for subsistence needs, while charging a price equal to marginal cost, including environmental cost, for discretionary uses. This pricing arrangement can promote efficient and sustainable water use patterns, goals set by the European Water Framework Directive, while meeting subsistence needs of poor households. Using data from the Rio Grande Basin of North America, a dynamic nonlinear program, maximizes the basin's total net economic and environmental benefits subject to several hydrological and institutional constraints. Supply costs, environmental costs, and resource costs are integrated in a model of a river basin's hydrology, economics, and institutions. Three programs are compared: (1) Law of the River, in which water allocations and prices are determined by rules governing water transfers; (2) marginal cost pricing, in which households pay the full marginal cost of supplying treated water; (3) two-tiered pricing, in which households' subsistence water needs are priced cheaply, while discretionary uses are priced at efficient levels. Compared to the Law of the River and marginal cost pricing, two-tiered pricing performs well for efficiency and adequately for sustainability and equity. Findings provide a general framework for formulating water pricing programs that promote economically and environmentally efficient water use programs while also addressing other policy goals.     

Educating for our environment: an Australian experience

This paper examines how some of the principles of environmental education have been taken up in environmental strategies and activities in Victoria, Australia. The focus is upon the efforts of the State Government-funded Victorian Environmental Education Council (VEEC) to encourage the development of environmental education in sectors and organizations outside the formal education sector and not usually associated with either the environment or education. The relative success of initiatives fostered in marginalized community sectors and in the private industry sector are discussed. Following the abolition of the VEEC (late 1993) with a change of government, questions are raised about the sustainability of environmental reform agendas in the public political domain. In view of the fragility of sympathetic political environments, it is argued, that for environmentally sustainable development a broader commitment to social justice and social change must be fundamental to environmental education principles and processes to both include all sections of the community and, also, to actually change who makes decisions and how and where they are made.Jeannie Rea lectures in environmental policy and polities at Victoria University of Technology, Victoria, Australia. She was the Trades Hall Council representative on the Victorian Environmental Education Council and worked with others, on a publication chronieling exemplary environmental education projects in Victoria.     

Environmentally adjusted productivity measurement: an Australian case study

This paper critically examines various methods for estimating productivity incorporating environmental effects for the Australian agricultural sector. The agricultural sector has been selected because of its strategic position in the economy of Australia. The findings of this study indicate that the application of environmentally adjusted productivity methods is a credible approach to measure productivity, in the context of sustainable development. Although the empirical findings of this research are case study specific, the results provide evidence supporting the adoption of these techniques to other sectors of the economy when measuring productivity and needing to be cognisant of sustainable development. The findings suggest that adjusting for the environmental impacts of soil erosion can result in higher or lower agricultural productivity depending on the assumptions we make regarding damage costs of erosion. It is argued in this paper that, for soil erosion in Australia, assumptions yielding higher productivity (i.e., upwardly adjusted) are justified. Finally, the findings of this study and the use of the methods presented point to important gaps in data availability. This gap needs to be addressed by policy makers if sustainable development objectives are to be credibly assessed using these techniques.     

Financial and economic factors affecting the lignite prices in Turkey: An analysis of Soma and Can lignites

Using a simultaneous equation econometric model based on yearly data between 1997 and 2006 for the Aegean Lignite Enterprise this study examines factors that affect the lignite price in Turkey. The Aegean Lignite Enterprise produces and sells the lignite of Soma and Can and their data reflect the general Turkish situation. The results suggest that (1) lignite prices sold to the industry increase (decrease) depending on the decrease (increase) in the industrial production and (2) total electricity production and electricity price are the most important factors that potential investors and related persons have to take into consideration for the pricing of lignite in the thermal power plant market.