Municipal Solid Waste in Mediterranean countries : Three contributions for a sustainable management

Au cours de ces dernières années, les Déchets Solides Municipaux (DSM) se sont révélés comme une problématique environnementale et économique majeure dans tous les pays. Les quantités collectées et les dépenses publiques nécessaires à leurs gestions croissent de façon insoutenable et ce, particulièrement dans les pays en développement (y compris ceux en transition). Face à ce constat, notre thèse a pour objectif de proposer des éléments de compréhension ainsi que des recommandations pour les politiques publiques. Pour cela, nous avons combiné une approche macroéconomique, pour étudier les liens entre la quantité de DSM et la croissance économique, à une approche microéconomique centrée sur la question du financement par une taxe incitative. Les contributions de cette thèse sont de trois ordres et ont pour référence les pays méditerranéens. La première contribution a consisté à tester la viabilité de l’hypothèse de la Courbe Environnementale de Kuznets (CEK) dans un contexte d’ouverture au commerce international. Cette première approche a permis de déceler une relation monotone croissante entre l’intensité de la production des DSM et la croissance économique sur la période 1990-2010 et ce, quel que soit le niveau de revenu des pays. Ce qui nous conduit à la conclusion d’une incompatibilité entre les objectifs de croissance et de prévention de la production des DSM. La deuxième contribution a été l’occasion de considérer, dans un modèle théorique, le recyclage informel qui est une caractéristique commune au pays en développement. L’objectif de cette contribution a été d’une part d’analyser l’impact du recyclage informel sur l’efficacité d’une politique de taxation incitative et d’autre part, de déterminer les conditions optimales d’une telle politique en présence du recyclage informel. En étudiant l’efficacité d’une politique de taxation directe de type tarification à l’acte et d’une politique de taxation indirecte de type Deposit and Refund System (DRS), nous montrons que la présence du recyclage informel ne permet pas de faire coïncider optimum social et équilibre du marché. Cependant, la politique DRS peut être optimale, à condition de subventionner à la fois le recyclage formel et informel. Enfin, la troisième contribution est une étude économétrique des impacts du système de taxation incitative d’un pays riche méditerranéen. Cette étude vient du constat selon lequel les pays riches, contrairement aux pays en développement, mettent en œuvre plusieurs taxes incitatives de façon concomitante. Nous évaluons l’efficacité du système de taxation de la France, qui avec ses trois taxes incitatives est un cas d’école en la matière. Nous proposons dans cette contribution, à l’aide de tests économétriques sur données départementales, une mesure de l’élasticité de la quantité de DSM collectés, valorisés et éliminés par rapport à la Redevance sur l’Enlèvement des Ordures Ménagères (REOM), la Responsabilité Élargie du Producteur (REP) et la Taxe Générales sur les Activités Polluantes (TGAP). Les résultats montrent une complémentarité des trois taxes avec une supériorité de la REOM pour inciter les ménages à la prévention et à la valorisation, et une supériorité de la REP pour inciter les collectivités locales à la substitution des technologies d’élimination à celles de valorisationIn last decades, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) has become a major environmental and economic problem in many countries. The quantity of MSW collected and the expenditures necessary for its management have rapidly increased, particularly in developing countries (including those in transition). Our thesis aims to shed light on the relationship between MSW collection and economic growth and to propose how public policy can sustainably manage this pollution. To attempt our objective, we combined a macro and micro economic approaches in theoretical and empirical studies. The contributions of this thesis are threefold and have the scope of Mediterranean countries. First, we complete the empirical literature on the validation of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis (EKC) by studying the relationship between MSW collected and the economic growth over the period 1990-2010. The main added value of this study is the use of multiple imputations methodology to control for the sample bias due to missing values. We find out that MSW collected monotonically increase with income whatever countries’ income level. This leads us to conclude that the economic growth and MSW prevention are not compatible. So in a second contribution, we investigate, in a theoretical model, the efficiency of using market-based incentives to reach to objective of waste prevention and diversion from disposal in developing countries. We consider the common phenomenon of waste picking in these countries and we analyze the conditions in which a policy of Deposit and Refund System (DRS) can help to achieve the first best optimum. We first analyze the impact of waste picking on the effectiveness of the user fee and the DRS, then we show that social optimum and market equilibrium can be hold by taxing consumer goods and by subsidizing both formal recycling and waste picking. Our third contribution in this thesis is an econometric evaluation of French MSW taxing system in order to test the hypothesis of the complementarity of direct and indirect MSW incentive taxes in developed countries, which implement simultaneously several incentives taxes. Using data aggregate at French administrative departments level, we assess the prevention and substitution effects of the three incentive taxes namely the French user fee (La Redevance d’Enlèvement des Ordures Ménagères), the Extended Producer responsibility and disposal tax levied at landfill and incineration (la Taxe Générale sur les Activités Polluantes). We confirm the complementarity hypothesis of these taxes

Efficience économique et financement des solutions fondées sur la nature : le cas du bassin versant de la Brague

Cet article évalue l’efficience économique de stratégies de prévention du risque d’inondation en vue d’éclairer la décision de financement des acteurs publics. Le cas de la protection contre les crues « éclair » (courtes et violentes) de la Brague et des inondations associées de la basse vallée à Biot et Antibes (Alpes-Maritimes) est pris comme exemple. Dans cette perspective, nous proposons une double analyse coût-bénéfice (ACB) dans le contexte particulier de la loi Gemapi (gestion des milieux aquatiques et protection contre les inondations) et des stratégies dites « SFN » (solutions fondées sur la nature). L’ACB top-down éclaire les décisions des acteurs nationaux et régionaux tandis que l’ACB bottom-up répond aux préoccupations des acteurs locaux en évaluant l’acceptabilité sociale des stratégies étudiées

Les stratégies de développement des énergies renouvelables dans la région MENA : Etude comparative et couloirs de développement

Depuis la fin des années 90, plusieurs pays MENA se sont engagés en faveur du développement des énergies renouvelables. Dans le but de relever le double défi économique et environnemental, le Plan Solaire Méditerranéen (Paris, 2008) encourage cet engagement avec l’ouverture au marché européen et l’augmentation de la production de l’électricité renouvelable. Dès lors,plusieurs projets d’investissement ont été mise en œuvre pour augmenter la production des énergies renouvelables dans la région. Toutefois, les efforts d'investissement dans ces énergies varient à la l’échelle d’un pays à l’autre et il manque à ce jour des éléments de comparaison de la position des pays par rapport à leur engagement politique. La problématique est non seulement de savoir comment l’engagement politique des pays MENA affecte leur offre en énergies renouvelables, mais aussi de savoir les sources d’énergies renouvelables qui ont été privilégiées. La littérature sur la consommation d'énergie a mis l'accent sur la relation de causalité entre consommation d'énergie et croissance économique avec quatre hypothèses testables : l’hypothèsede la croissance, l’hypothèse de conservation, l’hypothèse de la rétroaction et l’hypothèse de neutralité. Nous contribuons à cette littérature en testant la validité empirique de la fonction de production néo-classique. Notre apport principal est la prise en compte de la cointégration et les asymétries non linéaire et entre les variables avec le modèle Nonlinear ARDL (NARDL)(Banerjee et al., 1998 ; Pesaran et al., 2001 ; Shin et al., 2014). Notre objectif est de produire des éléments de comparaison entre les pays MENA et d'étudier les stratégies de production de l’électricité renouvelable qui permettent de créer une dynamique de développement durable à long terme

Giving Room to the River: A Nature-Based Solution for Flash Flood Hazards? The Brague River Case Study (France)

International audienceThe Brague River basin (68 km 2 ) is located on the French Mediterranean coast. It experiences a high risk of flash floods. The potential efficacy and efficiency of flood protection strategies based on green (Nature Based Solutions: NBS) or grey (civil-engineering) measures, as well as their co-benefits, are studied in this chapter. Two NBS flood alleviation strategies combine both small natural water retention areas, along with a widening of the river corridor. Two more classical grey scenarios were based on large wood-trapping racks, and another based on retention dams. This chapter synthesizes (i) the flood risk assessment; (ii) the estimation of total costs; (iii) how benefits related to each strategy were estimated. Benefits were evaluated with both a top-down method (avoided damages and transfer of valuations made elsewhere for co-benefits) and with a bottom-up approach surveying citizen willingness to pay. The cost-benefit analysis demonstrates that costs are higher than the avoided damage, and that co-benefits are much higher than avoided damage for most strategies and for both approaches. Depending on the number of household considered in the co-benefits valuation, the balance may reach higher benefits than costs for NBS strategies, though not for the grey solution based on large dams

Deliverable 6.3 DEMO Insurance Value Assessment - PART 7: FRANCE - Brague

The Brague River basin is a 68 km² catchment located along the French Mediterranean coast between the cities of Cannes and Nice. On 3rd Oct. 2015, the basin was severely hit by an extreme flash flood (time return was over 100 years). The basin very flat lowlands experienced numerous damages and casualties related to this flooding event. The several campsites located in these areas were closed by State decision because of the flood risk but dozens of houses remain at risk. The closing of the campsite opened a window of opportunity to redefine the economic activities of the valley and the river corridor in order to improve its life, landscape and environmental quality and to decrease the flood risk.Within the NAIAD project, several teams of researchers and experts in forest and river management, natural hazards (flood, erosion, wildfire), vulnerability and damage assessment, economy and decision aid gathered to perform an in-depth study of the Brague River catchment. More precisely, we studied its peculiarities, the potential efficacy and efficiency of flood protections measures based on green or grey measures, as well as their co-benefit.NBS flood alleviation strategies studied for the Brague catchment are a combination of both retention measures by small natural retention areas in the upper catchment, along with a widening of the river corridor in the lowlands enhanced by floodplain reconnection. Floodplain works consist in several measures as bed and bridge widening, forest corridor and wetlands restoration, and large woods debris management. They are integrated in a so-called “giving-room-to-the-river” strategy. Two levels of ambition, namely high and very high, are considered as well as a more classical grey scenario based on huge retention dams.This report presents the assessment of the Basin state in term of flood risk and river quality. Total costs of the three protection strategies were evaluated. Damage related to historical events and to theoretical floods with known return period were computed in the current and projects’ situation, thus enabling to compute mean annual avoided damage. The co-benefit related to NBS strategies were also evaluated using two different methods: transfer of values based on a meta-regression-analysis of values provided in other catchments and a contingent valuation performed locally through the interview of more than 400 peoples in the basin. The cost-benefit analysis demonstrates that costs are higher than the main benefit, i.e., avoided damage, but when including co-benefit the balance may reach higher benefits than costs for NBS strategies, though not for the grey solution. It worth being stressed that several intangible criteria, e.g., the improvement of the natural status of the river, are poorly captured by the monetary methods and a complementary multicriteria decision framework was developed to handle both tangible and intangible criteria

Economic assessment of nature-based solutions for water-related risks

International audienceEvidence are dearly needed to understand under which conditions it is relevant for decisions makers to invest in NBS for water-related risk. This chapter presents the methodological framework developed for the economic assessment of NBS for water-related risks and its application to seven case studies. We particularly develop methods for the evaluation of implementation and opportunity costs, the assessment of the reduction of damage costs, and the monetary value of co-benefits. The study confirms that the cost of implementation and maintenance of NBS strategies is lower than the cost of grey solutions for the same level of water risk management, emphasizing the better cost-effectiveness of these solutions. Benefits in terms of avoided damages are however generally not sufficient to cover investment and maintenance costs. Co-benefits represent the largest share of the value generated by NBS strategies. The overall cost-benefit analysis implemented in four cases, is positive in three case studies and negative in one. This confirms the importance to carry out thorough economic assessments for the elaboration of Natural Assurance Schemes

Is-it worth investing in NBS aiming at reducing water risks? Insights from the economic assessment of three European case studies

International audienceEconomic narratives are largely put forward as an argument for the promotion of Nature Based Solutions (NBS). However, integrated economic evidence, taking into account direct and opportunity costs, avoided damages and the multiplicity of co-benefits generated by NBS are still needed to support this argument and convince decision makers to invest in these solutions. To address this gap, we develop a methodological framework for the economic assessment of NBS for water related risks and present its application to three European case studies. We find that the cost of implementation and maintenance is lower for NBS strategies than for grey solutions for the same level of risk reduction, thereby confirming the cost-effectiveness advantage of these solutions. Benefits in terms of avoided damages are however generally not sufficient to cover these costs. Co-benefits represent the major share of the monetary value generated by NBS strategies. Finally, the results of the cost-benefit analysis reveal context-specific results on the overall economic efficiency of NBS. These results urge decision makers to tailor funding strategies to the specificity of NBS economic value