Persistent Pollutants: Economics and Policy

222 Pages·1991·5.092 MB·English

by  J. B. Opschoor, D. W. Pearce (auth.), J. B. Opschoor, D. W. Pearce (eds.)

PERSISTENT POLLUTANTS: ECONOMICS AND POLICY
Economy & Environment
1. F. Archibugi and P. Nijkamp (eds): Economy and Ecology: Towards Sustain-
able Development. 1989 ISBN 0-7923-0477-2
2. Jan Boja, Karl-Garan Maler, and Lena Unemo: Environment and Develop-
ment: An Economic Approach. 1990 ISBN 0-7923-0802-6
3. J. B. Opschoor and D. W. Pearce (eds): Persistent Pollutants: Economics and
Policy. 1991 ISBN 0-7923-1l68-X
Volume 3
Persistent Pollutants:
Economics and Policy
Edited by
J. B. OPSCHOOR
Free University ofA msterdam and
Advisory Council for Research on
Nature and Environment, Rijswijk,
The Netherlands
and
D. W.PEARCE
University College London, u.K.
SPRINGER -SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
Lfbrary of Congress Catalogfng-fn-Publfcatfon Data
Persistent pollutants : economics and policy ! Hans Opschoor and David
Pearce. editors.
p. cm. -- (Econo.y & environment ; 3)
Inc 1u des index.
ISBN 978-94-010-5491-1 ISBN 978-94-011-3372-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-011-3372-2
1. Micropollutants--Environmental aspects. 1. Opschoor. Johannes
B. (Johannes Baptist). 1944- II. Pearce. David W. (David
William) III. Series.
TD177.P47 1991
363.73·S--dc20 91-11201
ISBN 978-94-010-5491-1
Printed an acid-free paper
AII Rights Reserved
© 1991 Springer Science+B usiness Media Dordrecht
Origina11y published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1991
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover Ist edition 1991
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced ar
utilized in auy form ar by auy meaus, electronic ar mechauical,
inc1uding photocopying, recarding ar by any infarmation starage aud
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The European Science Foundation is an association of its 56 member research
councils and academies in 20 countries. The ESF brings European scientists
together to work on topics of common concern, to co-ordinate the use of
expensive facilities, and to discover and define new endeavours that will benefit
from a co-operative approach.
The scientific work sponsored by ESF includes basic research in the natural
sciences, the medical and biosciences, the humanities and the social sciences.
The ESF links scholarship and research supported by its members and adds
value by co-operation across national frontiers. Through its function as a co
ordinator, and also by holding workshops and conferences and by enabling
researchers to visit and study in laboratories throughout Europe, the ESF works
for the advancement of European science.
This volume arises from an interdisciplinary workshop of the "Environmental
Toxicology" programme sponsored by the ESF. The ESF is continuing to give
priority to fostering European research collaboration in this field through its new
programmes "Assessment of Environmental Damage" and "Environment,
Science and Society: An Economic and Institutional Analysis" .
Further information on ESF activities can be obtained from:
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Contents
l. Persistent Pollutants: A Challenge for the Nineties
1. B. Opschoor and D. W. Pearce 1
2. Sources of Persistent Micropollutants: Analysis with Dynamic Mate-
rials Balances
Xander Olsthoorn 9
3. Long-Term Environmental and Health Effects of PMPs
H. Govers, 1. H. F. Hegeman, and H. Aiking 21
4. Benefits of PMP Control: Ecosystems
R. Kerry Turner 33
5. Approaches to the Economic Evaluation of Environmental Effects of
PMPs: A General Introduction
1. B. Opschoor and W. A. Hafkamp 43
6. Valuation of Wetland Ecosystems
R. Kerry Turner 55
7. Health Benefits of PMP Control: The Case of Stratospheric Ozone
Depletion and Skin Damage Risks
Mark Dickie, Shelby Gerking, and Mark Agee 65
8. Ecotoxicology, Environmental Economists and the Valuation of
Adverse Environmental Effects
D. Michael Pugh 77
9. Cost-Benefit Analysis and PMPs
David Pearce 83
10. Problems of Irreversibility in the Control of PMPs
Rudiger Pethig 93
11. Integrated Environmental Economic Systems
Leen Hordijk 105
CONTENTS
VIlI
12. Environmental Regulation and Policy
Lester B. Lave 115
13. Economic Effects of Emission Reduction: Impacts on Industry
WimHafkamp 127
14. Economic Impacts on Controlling PMPs: A Comment
Jonathan Fisher 137
15. Long-Term Tradeoffs for Sustainability Policies in the Area of
Environmental Toxicology: An Economic Analysis of a NIMBY
Syndrome
Peter Nijkamp 145
16. A Comment on Nijkamp
Anil Markandya 157
17. Uncertainty in the Prediction of Attitudes Towards Environmental
Control
D.Rondia 159
18. Economic Instruments for Controlling PMPs
J. B. Opschoor 163
19. Economic Instruments for Controlling PMPs: A Comment
Jean-Philippe Barde 177
20. Liability Issues in Pollution Control
Horst Siebert 183
21. The Use of Liability-Rule Systems to Regulate the Environment: The
Case for 'Preventive Policy'
Tim Swanson 197
22. Some Ecotoxicological Problems Associated with the Regulation of
PMPs
R. Lloyd 203
23. Environmental Decision-Making: The Ecotoxicological Contribution
Marco Vighi 211
List of Contributors 217
Subject Index 219
1. Persistent Pollutants: A Challenge for the Nineties
J. B. OPSCHOOR and D. W. PEARCE
A Bridge Between Economics and Toxicology
Since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962), awareness of the hazards of releases
into the environment of various anthropogenic substances has increased rapidly.
So have attempts to deal with these pollutants. Especially since the early '70s,
many countries have developed increasingly effective responses to pollution
hazards in the forms of ameliorative and preventive policies. Pollution loads in the
River Rhine have - in many cases - dropped to levels 90% lower than those
occurring in the early '70s. In most industrialized countries, S02 emissions have
been curbed and even pushed back to levels prevalent in the '60s. However, it
appears that
(1) these policy responses have only been partly effective in terms of emissions
reductions;
(2) damage due to emissions have, in many cases, proved to be more severe
than expected a decade or so ago;
(3) policy and public attention has been focused on the more conspicuous and
obnoxious pollutants and have failed to adequately address many of the less
noticeable and more latently damaging ones.
In the coming decades, the world will not only have to come to terms with a
number of 'new' environmental challenges such as global warming and tropical
deforestation, but will also have to learn how to deal with a number of less
spectacular but equally threatening types of environmental issues such as the
persistent (micro) pollutants. Persistent micropollutants refer to pollutants that are
released in small quantities per unit of activity and per unit of time, and which are
often slow in degrading, often resulting in accumulated concentrations. Because of
their long life spans, we refer to these as persistent pollutants. In turn, many of
them are referred to as micropollutants due to the low emissions or the low levels
at which effects may occur. This volume deals with both these sets of pollutants
but is focused on those that show both features: persistent micropollutants (PMPs).
1. B. Opschoor and D. W. Pearce (eds), Persistent Pollutants, I-S.
© 1991 Kluwer Academic Publishers.
2 J. B. OPSCHOOR AND D. W. PEARCE
Examples of such PMPs are heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and zinc, and
organochlorines such as PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and P AHs.
PMPs may emerge from a variety of sources at low levels of emissions and this,
as well as the long period between emission and effect, poses problems for
decision-makers. An additional problem in the decision arena is the uncertainty in
the link between emission, concentration and ultimate effect, and the ranges in the
riskiness of various categories of effects. It is this combination of uncertainty,
potentially large impacts, and pervasiveness of PMPs which poses the decision
making challenge. Additionally, some effects of cumulated PMPs may be irreversi
ble, at least over the short-to-medium term.
This volume aims at establishing where science stands in the area of PMPs,
shows how economic approaches may help decision-makers in coming to a
judgement on the degree to which these pollutants must be controlled, and
discusses the means of controlling PMPs.
Laying the basis for decision-making in this area implies the need to bring
together, within a framework that is relevant from the perspective of policy-makers
and administrators, information and data processing methods from a variety of
sources. It is necessary to look at PMP sources and the dynamics behind these
sources, the fate of PMPs once they are emitted into the environment (transporta
tion and transformation processes), the effects of uptakes of PMPs by various
receptors, and the associated damage, and the technical, economic, and legal
means to deal with PMPs at source or in relation to their effects. This implies the
need to build a bridge between natural scientists and social scientists - at least,
and as a start, a bridge between economists, scientists environmental and ecotoxi
cologists. This volume represents a first attempt at integration. As ecotoxicologist
D. Michael Pugh remarks (Chapter 8): "The bridge is to be built and crossed, but
with patience, persistence and due regard for perceptual differences". More work
clearly needs to be done, much of it in the form of joint projects and case studies.
This book arises from a multidisciplinary workshop organized under the
auspices of the European Science Foundation's programme on Environmental
Toxicology, the Institute for Environmental Studies (Free University, Amsterdam),
and the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, in
collaboration with the Scientific Advisory Council on Environmental Toxicology
(ESF Strasbourg). The workshop was held in Noordwijkerhout, the Netherlands,
in 1989. It brought together scientists from the areas of environmental economics,
environmental toxicology and ecotoxicology, environmental chemistry, technology,
and related disciplines such as veterinary sciences, entomology, and decision
theory. From a decision-orientated perspective, PMPs present, in a fundamental
way, many of the problems associated with classical pollutants such as sulphur and
nitrogen oxides and particulate matter. This means that persistent pollutants force
environmental decision-making to the frontiers of what is possible from the view-
PERSISTENT POLLUTANTS 3
points of the natural sciences involved as much as from those of the economists
and decision theorists. The emphasis here is on what can be learned from applica
tions of environmental economics in policies or programmes on other types of
pollution or other parts of environmental protection.
The various contributions deal with (i) the nature of persistent pollutants, (ii)
possibilities of estimating damage due to environmental pollution, and (iii)
decision-making on environmental issues. On these various subjects, comments -
often critical ones - are given by natural scientists. All papers give special
emphasis to extending the analysis or methodology to the relatively new area of
the category of PMPs.
The PMP Problem
It is recognized by the European Science Foundation's programme on Environ
mental Toxicology that an integrated approach of environmental pollution control
cannot stop at tracing the fate of these pollutants and their effects on, e.g., human
health, population dynamics, and on the functioning of ecosystems. Rather, a more
comprehensive framework is needed in which questions can be addressed to
the factors explaining why pollutants are being released into the environ
ment;
the development of options for prevention and abatement;
optimal strategies for pollution abatement;
instruments to manipulate processes that lead to pollution.
Economic analysis provides such an approach - at least in principle. Hence,
attention is given to environmental economics in part of the Environmental
Toxicology programme.
Govers et al. (Chapter 3) introduce the generalized pollution chain as a frame
work that links together sources, discharges, transformation and transportation,
uptake, effects, adaptations to, and measures against, pollution. Opschoor and
Hafkamp (Chapter 5) develop this into an economic model, at the macro level, of
linkages between the economic process and the environment via pollutants. This
model links sources of PMPs and receptors, as well as decision-makers who base
their actions on some - implicit or explicit - evaluation preventing them from
adapting to and mitigating their effects. The model requires information on the
origins and effects of PMPs. It also leads to questions on how to value environ
mental changes and how to evaluate these against other features of the economic
process. Finally, it focuses attention on instruments and technical options that may
be applied in manipulating the economic process towards more environmentally
benign development paths. Opschoor and Hafkamp show that this approach,