Past and Future Emissions of Ammonia in Europe

The ammonia emissions of the RAINS model are presented. Sources of ammonia considered are: livestock farming, fertilizers, industry, human population and other anthropogenic sources. Data on emission factors are based on recent insights in the Netherlands but are adapted to account for country-specific elements such as: stall period, N-excretion, and the age and weight distribution. Ammonia emissions in 1980 in 26 European countries and Turkey are estimated at 7960 kilotons; 10 per cent higher than Buijsman et al. (1987) estimated. Ammonia emissions in 1987 are 8143 kilotons. This is 15 per cent lower than Asman (1990) suggested but corresponds fairly well with EMEP estimates. Country and source specific estimates, however, are more uncertain: differences between 5 and 40 per cent are possible. Estimates for cattle and fertilizer are major sources of divergencies. Based on national agricultural forecasts and trend analysis, future emissions of NH, are expected to increase with 8 per cent (over 1980) to 8620 kiloton in 2000

Sulfur Emission Trading and Regulation in Europe

How to implement emission trading is only one question in the current negotiations on a new sulfur protocol in Europe. Whereas the current protocol stipulates a 30 per cent uniform reduction, national emission ceilings included in the proposed new protocol imply differentiated reductions. In addition, emission and fuel standards are proposed. This paper examines the costs and environmental impacts of emission trading. A new element is that emission trading is combined with regulations. Calculations, using the RAINS (Regional Acidification INformation and Simulation) model, suggest that overlaying emission trading on regulations does reduce the cost savings but has beneficial impacts as well: ecosystem protection is not changed and significant decreases in environmental benefits for countries are largely avoided. Emission trading can also be used to decrease emissions and increase ecosystem protection. If combined with existing legislation, this minimizes losses in expected environmental benefits for some countries since most countries gain. The initial distribution of emission ceilings, however, has to be used to avoid that some countries are confronted with higher costs. Trade-offs thus appear to exist between using emission trading to achieve cost savings on the one hand and ecosystem protection and distributional equity on the other hand

Costs, Sulfur Emissions and Deposition of the EC Directive on Large Combustion Plants

The European Community (EC) has agreed upon a Directive to reduce acidifying emissions from large combustion installations. This policy sets emissions standards for new plants and requires an overall reduction in emissions from existing ones. As a result sulfur dioxide emissions in the EC will be reduced by an additional 15% over national legislation. The annual costs of the Directive are estimated at DM 9.2 billion, DM 3.1 billion more than the present national legislation. The area exposed to a sulfur deposition higher than 1 gram will decrease. However, the same emission reductions could have been reached with only DM 6.3 billion of annual costs

Trading of Emission Reduction Commitments for Sulfur Dioxide in Europe

This paper analyzes the potential role of emission trading systems for non-uniformly dispersed air pollutants, for which the geographical location of emissions has a significant impact on the location and extent of environmental damage. The paper derives the necessary conditions for trading schemes to be cost-effective and introduces the concept of offset rates. Offset rates describe the amount of emissions one source has to decrease if another source increases its emissions by one unit. To explore the potential performance of alternative trading schemes a simulation framework based on' the IIASA-RAINS model has been developed. Simulation runs to achieve regionally specified maximum levels of sulfur deposition (target loads) in Europe show that trading may result in cost savings. The extent to which such cost savings are possible and whether the originally specified target deposition levels are exceeded, depends crucially on the pre-trade level of emissions, the availability of information on costs, and the behavior of the trading partners. Further analysis is necessary before drawing final conclusions

Cost-Effective Strategies for Reducing Nitrogen Deposition in Europe

This paper explores the potential cost savings which would result from a combined control of emissions of nitrogen oxides and ammonia for the cost-effective achievement of nitrogen deposition targets in Europe. Using the Regional Acidification INformation and Simulation (RAINS) model a framework has been constructed for a simultaneous optimization of NOx and NH3 emission reductions using nitrogen depositions from both pollutants as side constraints. The paper first demonstrates that the same nitrogen deposition resulting from the currently committed reductions of NOx emissions (without measures for NH3 emissions) can be achieved at only 55 percent of the costs if measures for ammonia reduction would also be applied. The analysis shows that no large scale substitutions of NO, reductions by ammonia measures occur. The cost savings mainly result from replacing the most expensive (and ineffective) NOx abatement at a few places in Europe with inexpensive ammonia control measures. Consequently, the total level of NOx emissions is hardly higher than in the reference case, but substantial NH3 reductions are implemented lowering total cost. The second case explores the potential contribution ammonia control can make for attaining the same nitrogen deposition levels resulting from the maximum application of NOx abatement technologies solely. In this case reductions of ammonia emissions can lower total abatement costs by 23 percent, basically by modified manure handling, stable adaptations for poultry and the control of industrial ammonia emissions

Impacts of CO2-taxes in an economy with niche markets and learning-by-doing.

[Dataset available: http://hdl.handle.net/10411/16384]

English Language Screening for Scientific Staff at Delft University of Technology

Delft University of Technology (DUT) screened her (non-native English) scientific staff on their level of English proficiency in the academic year of 2006/2007. In this paper this large scale operation, involving planning, policy decisions, assessment means, advice and training are discussed. Since 2005 all the master programmes at DUT have been taught in English and since 3 years ago DUT has been an officially bilingual university with around 5,500 master students and 1,100 international students in the year 2008. Therefore, results are framed against the background of becoming an international university

Incomplete Information and the Cost-Efficiency of Ambient Charges

The established opinion is that in the face of uncertain information on pollution control costs, environmental agencies cannot set levels of ambient charges enabling the reaching of desired concentration levels at receptor sites in a cost-effective way. Although a trial-and-error procedure could finally result in the attainment of concentration standards this is generally not cost-effective. This paper proves that environment agencies can develop adaptive procedures that enable the achievement of the standards at minimum costs. The proof is based on ideas of non-monotonic optimization. The adaptation mechanisms are applied in a case study of charges for acidification in the Netherlands. The results show that the iterative procedure approaches the cost-minimum fairly quickly but that over and undershooting may occur underway. The number of iterations and extent of overshooting can be reduced by using available knowledge on the violation of ambient concentrations at receptors and by a simulation of polluters responses to charges