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Lead Papers
Anastassios Gentzoglanis argued that the estimated costs and benefits, although valid in a strict economic sense, neglect some important facets that can make an important difference in the outcome. The benefits arising from the reduction of CO2 emissions are calculated as the environmental damages that are avoided by preventing rising concentrations of gases. Although costs are calculated in a more direct way the benefits are at best uncertain. Even the direct benefits are really difficult to calculate, never mind the indirect ones. Cleaner environment and better standards of living arising out of emissions curtailment are difficult to quantify accurately. Should such comprehensive calculations were possible we would have a more balanced picture of the true costs and benefits. The international trade in emission rights reduce the calculated costs without altering drastically the ecological capital. Weak sustainability is possible and it can be achieved by relying on the market mechanisms, such tradable pollution permits. In a ever increasing competitive environment firms have a particular interest and incentive to comply with the Kyoto accord first before their competitors do so. The competitive advantage thus gained makes them more efficient and financially stronger, not weaker. The very recent experience with an ever increasing number of firms seeking to strike deals in getting trading permits is an evidence in point. Such a market is worth more than $60 billion-a-year in the U.S. alone. If politicians agree on clear rules for international trading, the global market could in time reach a trillion dollars a year. Such a growth in the market of tradable permits is quite promising as far as weak sustainability is concerned. Governments should abide to concrete and permanent rules on trading of pollution permits so that polluters and non polluters find the way to trade their permits and reduce the pollution of the environment. By rendering markets more perfect (information becomes more symmetric) the quality of the environment in the future can only get better. Shahidul Haque, Hasida Yasmin and Md. Hasibur Rahman have shown that the World’s population is increasing at an alarming rate in every year, more in developing country like Bangladesh and it is impacting on demographic pressure. They recommended:
Dr. Katalin K. Zaim explained that industrial pollution plays a major role in the deterioration of nature when the level of pollution is above the carrying capacity of the ecosystem. There are approaches to limit and regulate the pollution emissions of industrial activities. These are standards, taxes and pollution permits. The choice among these alternatives depends on the administrative structure of a nation. The Turkish Ministry of Environment, which is established in 1993 sets standards for the polluting activities. International standards are taken as a point of reference while choosing these standards. However, regulatory activities have been either too little or inefficient. It is well known that such a regulatory system will not lead to an efficient outcome since it requires a strong bureaucratic control and financial support. The optimal allocation of financial resources in the regulatory system is of upmost importance especially for nations with insufficient funds. Different sectors and areas may have different pollution problems. Some will suffer primarily from air pollution while others may have severe water pollution or toxic pollution problems. Therefore, it is important to identify the impacts of different pollutants and their geographic correlation. Such correlation allows policy makers to simplify their analysis of the problem and its regulation. In this study, first, the magnitude of industrial pollution is assessed for 1985 and 1992 in Turkey. Second, the industrial sectors’ contributions to pollution emission and media contamination (land, water and air) are identified. Third, the regional pollution intensities, pollution abatement costs, benefits of abatement and benefit-costs ratios are computed for policy decisions. The IPPS method developed by the PRDEI in the World Bank allowed us to compute the yearly pollution intensities, toxic and metal pollution emissions to air, water and land for the industrial activities. The computations are performed for the years 1985 and 1992. The results indicate that the most relevant pollutants produced by industries are TSS, SO2, and CO. Toxic and metal pollution effected land mostly. Sectors responsible for the highest level of pollution are manufacture of other chemical product , manufacture of plastic product , manufacture of glass and glass product and manufacture of cement. Manufacture of other chemical products created the largest amount of BOD emission. Plastic production caused NO2, VOC and polluted air, water and land with toxic pollution the most. Glass production results in the highest levels of PT and PM10 pollution. Cement manufacturing on the other hand caused the highest level of CO, SO2, TSS, metal air, metal water and metal land pollution. The regional distribution of pollution intensities, benefits of abatement, abatement costs and benefit/cost ratios are also computed for the year 1992. The results indicated that region 1 experienced the highest level of pollution, and region 3 the second highest. The other regions were exposed to lower level of pollution intensities. Similar results are obtained for the pollution per capita per km2. Since region 1 is exposed to the highest level of pollution, the abatement costs are also the most significant ones in this region; hence, the benefit/cost ration is greatest in this region at each level of abatement. As pollution abatement decreased from 100% to 80%, 50%, 25% and 10% the abatement costs and benefit/cost ratios for each region decreased proportionally. However, at 50% of abatement the benefit/cost ratio is the highest compared to 100% and 25% of abatement. This indicates that the most cost efficient policy would be to request a 50% of abatement in all regions, since at a higher level of abatement the benefit gained per cost of abatement is decreasing at an increasing rate, whereas the benefit/cost ratio reaches its highest value at 50% of abatement.
In an urban community site, air usually contains materials such as nitric oxide, sulfur oxide, carbon monoxide, aldehydes, dust and many others (Dufour). A city would have a department measuring indicators and indices in order to:
An Air Quality Index is measured by most cities and is usually based on three to five pollutant concentrations. The most common pollutants measured were listed above here. Another indicator measures the number of days of poor air quality over a particular time period multiplied by the number of people exposed. The annual emissions of oxides of sulphur and nitrogen (acid rain) damage lakes, rivers, soils and vegetation is an important global indicator. An industry in some country could produce acid rain in large quantities and yet never feel the impacts. Because the winds usually carry acid rain, the impacts would be felt by another country. The annual emissions of carbon dioxide, CFCs, methane and other greenhouse gases from human activity, manufacturing products, agriculture, motor vehicles and landfills are measured for several reasons including the increase in average global temperature. The annual quantity of ozone-depleting substances purchased by government and industry. The ozone layer of the Earth is constantly being destroyed by these substances (see Newsletters for in depth understanding of the problem and recommendations).
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