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17 Action for sustainability

17 Action for sustainability. Learning outcomes. By studying this section students will be able to: explain the meaning of sustainable development understand the limitations of the price mechanism in allocating resources in respect of environmental considerations

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17 Action for sustainability

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  1. 17 Action for sustainability

  2. Learning outcomes • By studying this section students will be able to: • explain the meaning of sustainable development • understand the limitations of the price mechanism in allocating resources in respect of environmental considerations • utilize different instruments for encouraging sustainability and environmental consideration • evaluate a variety of methods to impute value to unpriced externalities • understand the range of influences on environmental policy

  3. Meaning of sustainable development • The 1987 Brundtland Report defined sustainability as • ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (WCED, 1987: 43) • Common elements in Brundtland are • the rate of use of renewable and non-renewable resources and maintenance of natural capital. • consideration of the effects of development on local and global waste sinks

  4. Key principles of sustainability • consideration of externalities • consideration of depletion of non-renewable resources • tailoring of economic activity to the carrying capacity of the environment • the precautionary principle • the ‘polluter pays’ principle

  5. How sustainable are cheap air fares? • How could they be made more sustainable?

  6. Approaches to sustainability • Regulation • market approaches • soft tools.

  7. Regulation • Planning permission • Environmental Impact Assessment • Retrospective controls and laws • Special Designation

  8. Regulation • Protected Area

  9. Market approaches • Approaches under this category include: • ownership • taxes, subsidies and grants • tradable rights and permits • deposit-refund schemes • product and service charges

  10. Taxes vs. Controls • Legal limit set at Q1, but actual fines incurred on firm may only shift supply curve to SFN • Tax shifts supply curve to STX • Tax achieves objective of reduced output

  11. Market Approaches • Sustrans, a UK NGO, receives government subsidy to promote cycling

  12. Deposit refund schemes

  13. Soft tools • These include: • tourism ecolabelling • certification / award schemes • codes of conduct • Recycling schemes • guidelines, treaties and agreements • citizenship, education and advertising

  14. Soft Tools • What is this? • An ecolabel: • The EU Blue Flag Scheme for Clean Beaches

  15. Soft Tools • Code of Conduct for countryside visit • What impacts are these designed to lessen?

  16. Soft Tools Hard tools • Advertising • And threat of fine

  17. Soft Tools • Recycling bins at Lisbon Airport

  18. Soft tools: Codes of Conduct

  19. Soft Tools • Beach Rules: Steephill Cove, IoW, UK • Beach Rules: Sharm, Egypt

  20. Pricing the environment • Several methods have been developed by environmental economists to impute value for unpriced goods or services: • Willingness to pay (WTP) method = • discovery of what people would be prepared to pay for a currently unpriced resource. • Hedonic pricing method (HPM) = • imputing a price for an environmental externality by determining its effect on other prices. • Travel cost method (TCM) = • imputing the value of a site by measuring the cost of travel to it.

  21. Pricing the environment • Dose–response method = • measuring effects of pollution in monetary terms. • Replacement cost technique = • measuring costs of pollution by calculating restoration costs. • Mitigation behaviour method = • measuring costs of pollution by counting defensive expenditure

  22. Review of key terms • Sustainable development = • development which can endure over the long run. • Intergenerational equity = • ensuring future generations do not inherit less capital than the current one. • Natural capital = • raw materials and the natural environment. • Regenerative capacity = • limit to harvesting of renewable resource whilst maintaining stock level. • Social cost–benefit analysis = • comparison of full social costs and benefits of a project. • Willingness to pay (WTP) method = • discovery of what people would be prepared to pay for a currently unpriced resource.

  23. Review of key terms • Hedonic pricing method (HPM) = • imputing a price for an environmental externality by determining its effect on other prices. • Travel cost method (TCM) = • imputing the value of a site by measuring the cost of travel to it. • Dose–response method = • measuring effects of pollution in monetary terms. • Replacement cost technique = • measuring costs of pollution by calculating restoration costs. • Mitigation behaviour method = • measuring costs of pollution by counting defensive expenditure. • Command and control (CAC) = • direct regulations, e.g. water quality regulations. • Market-based incentives = • adjusting prices to reflect external costs. • Polluter pays principle (PPP) = • polluter pays the full cost of pollution effects.

  24. 17 Action for sustainability: The End

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