The effect of competition on toxic pollution releases

We examine how competition affects toxic industrial releases, using five years of data from thousands of facilities across hundreds of industries. Our main result indicates that competition reduces toxic releases at the facility level. On average, each percentage-point reduction in the Herfindahl Index (HHI) results in a nearly two-percent reduction in a facility׳s toxic releases. At the same time, we find no evidence that competition increases aggregate pollution. Further analysis sheds some light on the mechanisms through which firms reduce pollution releases due to increased competition. In particular, we find suggestive evidence that this relationship is due to both reduced output and increases in abatement. We find no evidence that our result is driven by: consumer aversion to pollution, regulations changing with competition, or technologies introduced by new firms. Taken together, our results indicate that competition may be good, at least for public health in areas near polluting facilities, and fail to provide support for the hypothesis that competition leads to more socially undesirable behavior.     

Can decentralized planning really achieve first-best in the presence of environmental spillovers?

It is generally accepted that decentralized policy choice in the presence of interjurisdictional spillovers is inefficient. Strikingly, Ogawa and Wildasin (2009) find that in a model with heterogenous jurisdictions, interjurisdictional capital flows, and interjurisdictional environmental damage spillovers, decentralized planning outcomes are equivalent to that under a centralized planner. We first show the critical importance of two key assumptions (no retirement of capital, fixed environmental damages per unit of capital) in obtaining this result. Second, we consider a more general model allowing for capital retirement and abatement activities and show that the outcome of a decentralized market generally differs from the solution of a centralized planner?s social welfare-maximizing problem.     

Carbon leakage: Grandfathering as an incentive device to avert firm relocation

Emission allowances are sometimes distributed for free in an early phase of a cap-and-trade scheme to reduce adverse effects on the profitability of firms. This paper investigates whether grandfathering can also be used to avert the relocation of firms to countries with lower carbon prices. We show that under certain conditions, relocation can be averted in the long run, even if the grandfathering scheme is phased out over time and immediate relocation is profitable in its absence. This requires that the permit price triggers sufficient investments into low-carbon technologies or abatement capital that create a lock-in effect which makes relocation unprofitable.     

抚顺市环境噪声达标区建设研究

对抚顺市环境噪声的现状进行了调查研究。提出了抚顺市环境噪声达标区的建立和划分,制定出抚顺市环境噪声达标区具体保护措施。为加速城市环境噪声污染综合治理工作,提高抚顺市声环境质量打下良好基础。     

Market design in cap and trade programs: Permit validity and compliance timing

Cap and trade programs have considerable heterogeneity in permit validity and compliance timing. For example, permits have different validities across time (e.g., banking, borrowing, and seasons) and space (e.g., zonal restrictions), and compliance timing can be annual, in overlapping cycles, or in multi-year periods. We discuss nine prominent cap and trade programs along these dimensions and construct a general model of permit validity and compliance timing. We derive sufficient conditions under which abatement is invariant to compliance timing, i.e., compliance timing cannot smooth abatement cost shocks. Under these conditions, (i) expected compliance costs are invariant, (ii) the variance of compliance costs increases with the delayed compliance, (iii) equilibrium prices may not be unique, and (iv) the delayed compliance equilibrium may rely on “degenerate” prices not determined by marginal abatement costs. We demonstrate the model's broad applicability by illustrating different types of temporal permit validity.     

Identification of PM sources by principal component analysis (PCA) coupled with wind direction data

The effectiveness of combining principal component analysis (PCA) with multi-linear regression (MLRA) and wind direction data was demonstrated in this study. PM data from three grain-size fractions from a highly industrialised area in Northern Spain were analysed. Seven independent PM sources were identified by PCA: steel (Pb, Zn, Cd, Mn) and pigment (Cr, Mo, Ni) manufacture, road dust (Fe, Ba, Cd), traffic exhaust (P, OC + EC), regional-scale transport (, , V), crustal contributions (Al2O3, Sr, K) and sea spray (Na, Cl). The spatial distribution of the sources was obtained by coupling PCA with wind direction data, which helped identify regional drainage flows as the main source of crustal material. The same analysis showed that the contribution of motorway traffic to PM10 levels is 4-5 microg m-3 higher than that of local traffic. The coupling of PCA-MLRA with wind direction data proved thus to be useful in extracting further information on source contributions and locations. Correct identification and characterisation of PM sources is essential for the design and application of effective abatement strategies.     

运用经济制度推进污染减排的探索

随着经济规模的不断扩大,我国污染减排的压力持续加大,在充分运用必要的行政和法律手段的同时,应注重运用污染减排的税收制度、排污权交易制度、与金融部门共享环境信息等经济制度或手段调控社会环境行为,将环境成本内部化,增加企业直接排污成本,降低企业内部治理成本,调动减排积极性,促进污染减排计划的顺利实施。     

经济发展与环境保护双赢政策初探——从临沂治污事件谈起

新环保法实施以来,环境治理工作取得成效显著。但在一些地区具体环保工作的开展中也出现了一些争议。作为争议焦点事件的临沂治霾工作,引发了地方经济发展与环境保护工作二者关系问题的讨论。实现经济发展与环境保护双赢政策,需要建立环保长效机制,完善法律体系,优化管理机制。更好发挥以环境财税体制和排污权交易为代表的经济杠杆作用,实现污染末端治理与源头治理及产业结构优化调整并举,推进环境微观管理与宏观决策的协调统一,同时做好严格执法与完善立法的最优响应工作。     

Uncertainties in integrated assessment modelling of abatement strategies: illustrations with the ASAM model

Following the signing of the Second Sulphur Protocol in 1994 under the 1979 Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, preparations are now underway for a new multi-pollutant multi-effects protocol, under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN ECE). A number of scientific models have been used to provide policy makers involved in these preparations with sound scientific information. These include the Abatement Strategies Assessment Model (ASAM). ASAM has recently been extended to cover abatement strategies for NH₃ and NOx as well as SO₂, in order to address the amelioration of acidification and eutrophication in the ECE region. It is important to be able to demonstrate that the scientific information provided to policy makers is robust to uncertainties, and hence there is a need for a thorough sensitivity analysis. In this study ASAM is used to demonstrate a large degree of robustness of derived abatement strategies to uncertainties in critical loads, meteorological data and cost information. This is based on a comparison of strategies at the same overall abatement cost. Systematic changes in data are shown to influence model results more profoundly than random changes.     

Air pollution due to coal washery projects and its abatement measures

The demand for washed coal in India has led to the planning of washeries. The sources of air pollution in washeries are described is this paper. A number of new washeries are going to be installed within the vicinity of Jharia Coalfield in eastern India to fulfill the demand for washed coal. Air pollution monitoring was conducted at four coal washeries of Bharat Coking Coal Ltd. (BCCL). Methods adopted for selection of monitoring stations and sampling and analysis of ambient air quality are discussed. Suspended particulate matter (SPM) concentrations in an industrial area, a residential area, and a sensitive area such as a hospital were found to be high and to exceed the limit specified by the Indian Pollution Control Board. NO_x and SO₂ concentrations in some areas were also found to exceed the specified limits. A high percentage of respirable dust in SPM indicates a health hazard. Benzene-soluble material was found to be 40%, which can be fatal to human health. Suppression measures are discussed for dust, and control measures for air pollution in coal washeries are proposed.