The economics of noise pollution

This thesis investigates the problems posed by the existence of noise pollution with the use of economic concepts. The analysis is conducted at various levels of abstraction and includes the opening up cf some new fields of investigation, as well as tidying up and bringing together some previous work. The thesis is divided into six chapters. Chapter one introduces the subject and indicates the approach that is going to be taken in the subsequent chapters. Chapter two analyses the consequences for an optimum town of pollution such as noise. The necessary and sufficient conditions for an optimum are obtained and discussed. There are some comparative static results and the question of decentralisation is examined. Finally some simulation results are presented. The work in this chapter is perhaps least specific to noise pollution and would apply to any spatially distributed non-accumulating pollution. Chapter three examines the measurement of noise costs to households and compares two different approaches to the problem. Chapter four discusses the control cf noise levels in the context of the economic analysis cf Externalities and Public Ears, and emphasises some of the difficulties in obtaining optimum noise charges. Chapter five summarises the existing empirical work and adds some new results

A CRITICAL REVIEW of COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS for CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION in CITIES

his study systematically reviews the scientific literature (n=56) on cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of adaptation measures in cities and similar urban environments. The review is conducted to assess existing or proposed actions for dealing with impacts of drought, heat waves, sea-level rise, and pluvial and fluvial flooding. It includes over 30 measures related to structural, services, technological, informational and ecosystem-based approaches. The main findings demonstrate that CBA of adaptation measures across urban environments must contend with numerous long-term socioeconomic and climate change uncertainties. Subsequently, this has led to inconsistencies in valuation frameworks related to, for example, planning horizons, discount rates, non-market considerations and future scenarios. Results also indicate a clear gap in the literature on the economic valuation of adaptation measures in the Global South. Furthermore, few studies integrate equity dimensions while planning for adaptation. Extensions of CBA to account for key uncertainties will help policy makers to allocate (often scarce) resources more efficiently and limit the likelihood of maladaptation. Further inclusion of the magnitude and distributional effects of non-market impacts and greater civil society engagement in policy dialogues will also be vital for promoting just and equitable measures that balance adaptation alongside other policy goals such as mitigation, economic development, health and well-being. © 2019 World Scientific Publishing Company.The authors are grateful for support received from the Horizon 2020 RESIN project (EC-H2020, grant agreement No. 653522). Additionally, this work is also supported by the Basque Government through the BERC 2018-2021 program and by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness MINECO through the BC3 Mar a de Maeztu excellence accreditation MDM-2017-0714. The authors would also like to thank the referee of the journal, whose detailed comments have led to major changes that have improved the paper

Economic Valuation of Forest Ecosystem Services: Methodology and Monetary Estimates

By using ad hoc value transfer protocols, this paper offers a methodological contribution and provides accurate per hectare estimates of the economic value of some selected ecosystem services for all forest biomes in the world, identified following the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment taxonomy MEA. The research also estimates potential total economic losses from policy inaction in year 2050. Final results show that total losses are significant. The total figure is €78 billion, the greatest losses coming from North America and Mexico, followed by Africa, Russia and some Asiatic countries. Most of this loss is attributable to provisioning services and carbon sequestration, while only a minor part is due to loss of cultural services. In terms of biomes the greatest losses are from boreal and warm mixed forests, followed by tropical forests. These results may be surprising to some who argue that it is the loss of tropical forests, particularly the Amazon, that is the most significant. A detailed analysis, shows, however, that this is not the case. The best estimates point to greater losses in areas where use and non-use values are highest, which includes North America.Forest, Ecosystem Services, Biodiversity, Valuation, Value Transfer

COVID-19 and climate change challenges or opportunities for economic recovery

The paper reviews the impact that COVID-19 has had on the ambitions of countries to meet the Paris Accord of reducing emissions to keep global temperature increases to below 2 ºC in this century. It notes that as nations recover from the crises, if no additional measures are taken, emissions of greenhouse gases will rise again and return to their old pathway as they did after previous crises. The paper proposes actions in the short and medium terms to build back differently this time and help meet the global climate challenge. © 2021, Universitat de Valencia. All rights reserved

Covid, the Environment and Food Systems: Contain, Cope and Rebuild Better

The objective of this paper is to analyse impacts of COVID-19 on the nexus of food systems, the environment and sustainable development and propose ways for governments and international agencies to mitigate impacts in the short and medium term. It covers the historic period from early 2020 to early 2021 and also makes an assessment on future prospects. Although evidence is collected from all around the world, the focus is primarily on developing countries. The methods used are a review of the announced actions and preliminary findings in the academic and grey literature as well as on reliable websites from global and international institutions. By October 2020, governments around the world had invested about $12 trillion to counteract the economic effects of COVID-19. This investment could contribute to progress on the SDGs and global climate targets insofar as it was invested within a framework that supports both socio-economic recovery and sustainability. Initial analysis indicates that investments for economic recovery did not sufficiently address food security and sustainability, concentrating instead on immediate economic risk management. The global sustainable development agenda must promote the resilience and sustainability of food systems through policies and measures that: i) account for environmental thresholds and trade-offs; ii) promote food security and healthy diets; iii) enhance and protect rural livelihoods; and iv) address the inequalities and injustices that have emerged and will prevail during a post-COVID transition. National stimulus programs and the actions of international agencies must be assessed and monitored to deliver multiple benefits simultaneously and guide building back better. © Copyright © 2021 Markandya, Salcone, Hussain, Mueller and Thambi.This paper is the product of a UNEP project to investigate the links between COVID, the agri-food system and the environment. The authors acknowledge the contribution of all those working to understand the ramifications of this pandemic and their efforts to determine solutions for the welfare of our communities and environment. Special thanks are extended for comments and suggestions provided by: Doreen L. Robinson, Chief for Wildlife, UNEP Ecosystems Division; Sirini Withana, Economic and Trade Policy Unit, UNEP Economy Division; James Lomax, Food Systems and Agriculture Adviser, UNEP Ecosystems Division; Susan Mutebi-Richards, Gender Reviewer, Gender and Safeguards Unit, Policy and Programme Division; Jian Liu, Chief Scientist and Director, UNEP Science Division; Edward Barbier, University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Economics, Colorado State University, Senior Scholar in the School of Global Environmental Sustainability; Peter May, Professor titular CPDA/UFRRJ. Thanks are also due to three referees from the journal who made many suggestions that improved the paper. The FAO recommends four measures to ensure supply of agricultural inputs: reduce farmer income uncertainty; support digitization of input markets; ease movement restrictions for procuring ag inputs; maintain government support for investment in ag inputs (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2020g). Some countries have heeded this advice. In India, the national relief package includes the provision of 300 billion rupees ($4.5 billion) of additional emergency working capital funding for small and marginal farmers to meet post-harvest spring (Rabi) and current autumn (Kharif) requirements. Several countries, including Angola, Haiti, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia and Senegal, are providing similar financial assistance, supported in part by agencies like the World Bank to address the reduction in access to finance among farmers (World Bank, 2020b)

Accounting for the effects of employment, equity, and risk aversion in cost-benefit analysis: An application to an adaptation project

This paper sets out to explore to what extent integrating employment effects, equity, and risk aversion within cost-benefit analysis (CBA) affect the economic appraisal of a climate change adaptation project designed to protect against flood risk in a region of Bilbao (Basque Country, Spain). Four CBAs are conducted: (i) a standard CBA; (ii) a standard CBA considering equity; (iii) a standard CBA considering equity and employment; and (iv) a standard CBA considering equity, employment and risk aversion. All CBAs are conducted using a time frame of 2014- 2080 and considering a 100-year return period under a middle of the road emission scenario (RCP4.5). A sensitivity analysis is also undertaken. Results suggest that the economic efficiency of the adaptation investment is contingent on what types of considerations are included within CBA. Integrating elements of employment, equity and risk aversion can strengthen or weaken the case for action (leading to higher or lower net-present values) and (depending on the discount rate chosen) may even be the deciding factor for determining whether a particular action should be carried out or not (whether the net-present value is positive or negative). © The Author(s), 2021.Acknowledgments: The funding for this work was provided by the European Commission 7th Framework Programme ECONADAPT project on the “Economics of climate change adaptation in Europe” under the grant agreement No. 603906. This research is also supported by the Basque Government through the BERC 2018-2021 program and by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness MINECO through BC3 María de Maeztu excellence accreditation MDM-2017-0714

The Economic Impacts of Biodiversity Policy for Improving the Climate Regulating Services Provided by EU Natura 2000 Habitats

22 p.We adopted the state-of-the-art methodologies to quantify the total carbon stocked by Natura 2000 habitats as well as to project the future changes of carbon stocks influenced by alternative policy options for the management of Natura 2000 habitats by 2020. Our results show that the N2K network currently stores around 9.6 billion tonnes of Carbon, equivalent to 35 billion tonnes of CO2, which is estimated to be worth between €607 billion and €1,130 billion (stock value in 2010), depending on the price attached to a ton of carbon. Of the different ecosystems the forest habitats contain the highest carbon value in the network, ranging between €318 and €610 billion in 2010. Furthermore, our results also show that in the future these carbon values can be increased. A policy scenario (Policy ON), where full Protected Area coverage (terrestrial PAs + fuller MPAs) with a move to full favourable conservation status is estimated to generate a gain of at least a total of 1.71-2.86% by 2020 compared to a policy inaction scenario (Policy OFF), where no additional action is taken to conserve the current Natura 2000 sites over the next decade

A dynamic assessment of instrument interaction and timing alternatives in the EU low-carbon policy mix design

The European Union low-carbon strategy includes a range of complementary policies. Potential interactions between instruments and different timing of their implementation can influence the cost and likelihood of achieving the targets. We test the interactions between the three main pillars of the European Union strategy through a dynamic Computable General Equilibrium model (GDynEP) with a time horizon of 2050. Main results are: i) going for the unilateral European Union carbon mitigation target without any complementary technological policy will produce large economic losses; ii) by investing in clean energy technologies (energy efficiency and renewable energy) with a carbon tax revenue recycling mechanism, these losses will decrease substantially; iii) when complementary clean energy technology policies are implemented, the optimal timing of binding targets changes; iv) the higher the public support to clean energy technologies, the larger the economic gains in early adoption of challenging abatement targets. © 2018 Elsevier LtdWe acknowledge financial support received by the EU D.G. Research (research project “CECILIA2050 — Choosing efficient combinations of policy instruments for low-carbon development and innovation to achieve Europ

Risk measures and the distribution of damage curves for 600 European coastal cities

A good understanding of climate change damages is vital to design effective adaptation policies and measures. Using a dataset of probabilistic sea-level rise and other of flood damages and protection cost curves for the 600 largest European coastal cities we generate stochastic damage curves and their distributions with and without adaptation. We apply the Generalized Extreme Value distribution to characterize the distributions and calculate two risk measures: the Value at Risk and the Expected Shortfall, which contribute to understanding the magnitude and probability of high-end sea-level rise represented by the upper tail of the distribution. This allows the costs of sea-level rise to be estimated (that is, in addition to other costs related to coastal extreme events) and supports decision-makers in integrating the high uncertainty related to future projections. This knowledge is necessary for an adequate risk management that does not underestimate risk. Furthermore, it allows city planners to tailor their risk tolerance. A great number of cities in Europe are currently undertaking adaptation plans or have already done so. Making these findings available should therefore be of great priority value to inform these processes. © 2019 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.This research is supported by the Basque Government through the BERC 2018–2021 program and by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICINN) through BC3’s María de Maeztu excellence accreditation MDM-2017-0714

Economic Assessment of Forest Ecosystem Services Losses: Cost of Policy Inaction

52 p.This paper presents a bottom-up methodological framework for estimating some of the key ecosystem services provided by forests biomes worldwide. We consider the provision of wood and non-wood forest products, recreation and passive use, and forests’ contribution to climate regulation in terms of carbon sequestration capacity. The valuation framework derives per hectare estimates by applying meta-analysis, value transfer and scaling up procedures in order to control for existing heterogeneities across world regions and forest biomes. The first part of the study estimates stock values per hectare for each forest ecosystem service in the baseline year 2000 and in the year 2050. Carbon stocks represent, in general, the highest value per hectare, followed by provisioning services, passive use and recreational values. The second part provides an estimation of the welfare loss (or gain) associated with policy inaction in the period 2000-2050 leading to a change in the forest area. Welfare results are mixed and require a careful interpretation. In different world regions, no policy initiative can results in both gains and losses, which appear to be sensitive to the use of lower or upper bounds values per hectare