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... impacts. Presently, standards refer to ambient (outdoor) concentrations where measurements can most easily be made, most often from the tops of buildings. However, in North America we spend under 10 % of our time outdoors, and even less atop buildings. As negligible as this may appear to be, the exposure to pollutants which one receives varies greatly from being indoors, at street levels or on top of a high-rise. With particular pollutants, as little as 25 % of total exposure is due to outdoor exposure.
This is due to many of the air pollutants (environmental tobacco smoke, household chemicals... ) which in terms of total levels are minimal, but because of the quantities we are exposed to have the greatest impact on human health (8). The implicit assumption underlining ECT is that health damages from pollution depend only on the effects of emissions on widespread ambient concentrations. Local effects are for the most part ignored. Consequently, sources of pollution that may have substantial effects on a local level but a negligible effect on ambient ones are not taken into account.
With this in mind Emission Credit Trading could be considerably improved, in terms of the impact it is to have on health and environmental conservation, by shifting from concentration to exposure levels (5). There is also the question of legitimate enforcement. The arbitrary nature of enforcement in such a system as C&C creates an environment in which polluters have an incentive to be rent seeking competitors. And with the status of our political and administrative offices this can produce the perception of favoritism or in some cases corruption. Since rent seeking is economically inefficient, and it increases the publics (already high) cynicism about government, a decentralized Emission Credit Trading program would minimize these problems. ECT programs have been advanced as a major improvement over command- and-control pollution abatement programs.
This is one of the first pieces of proposed legislation toward an environmentally friendly shift in politics. The entire concept of Emission Credit Trading is bringing to the fore the notion that we do live in a sort of Global Village and that the... importance of a system is proportional to the degree it can affect its environment... the sensitivity of a system depends on how much it is affected by its environment. If the sensitivity is high, the system is dependent on the environment; if low, independent (Arnopoulos 45).
We are now realizing that we cannot act completely independently from nature, because we are all related. We cannot be sustained without nature. The administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency went as far as to proclaim transferable discharge permits the most important innovation in environmental policy for the next decade (Rifkin, 66). As previously mentioned, the major contributor to air pollution is the automobile.
Therefore, any thought of policy dealing with the elimination or reduction of air pollution should concentrate, but not be limited to the automobile. In dealing with the automobile in terms of reducing its impact on air pollution incentives must be given for manufacturers to reduce pollutant emissions from their vehicles and the costs associated with the pollution created from driving must be transferred to those people operating the vehicle. To increase manufacturers compliance with the production of less harmful vehicles, a combination of averaging and trading is the most effective solution. This system is very similar to that of Emission Credit Trading in that manufactures will be given a fleet wide average standard to meet (i. e. : their sales-weight emissions cant exceed the average). This average can then be met in two manners.
By averaging emissions within their fleet, through methods such as installing pollution reduction equipment on their vehicle or by altering their sales mix towards more fuel efficient vehicles. Or the manufacturer can trade emission allocations with other manufactures in the same manner as ECTs (6). It is important to note here that this is a different proposal as to what is already in existence. The second method by which automobile pollution can be reduced focuses on internalizing the costs of pollution into the driving experience. The most effective and efficient manner is in the development of electronic scanning devices that would locate a vehicle at suitable points along the road and then monthly billings would be sent to the owner based on the vehicles contribution to congestion.
To increase fairness (due to different emission levels of vehicles) this can be combined with periodic inspections so as to determine emission levels of a particular vehicle, so as to adjust billings accordingly (6). A serious increase in fuel taxes would also not do any harm in reducing air pollution problems. It is important to note that by putting the costs of pollution onto drivers this will increase pressures on manufactures to produce more efficient cars, and develop alternative fuel sources. In a nutshell emission credit trading programs operate as follows. Rather than having each firm reduce its emissions by a given amount, the program requires that average emissions be reduced by a set amount. A firm that reduces its emissions below this average level would be given credits which could be sold or saved.
Credits which are saved could then be used at a later date if the firm desired to increase production (hence pollution). Credits to be sold would go to firms finding it less costly to purchase credits at market rates than to actually reduce harmful emissions. Therefore, each firms incentive to invest in more effective pollution abatement technology will increase. Through the trading of credits, dollars spent on pollution control are spent where they are most effective at reducing pollution. Some of the advantages of ECTs are that no other method is as effective at allocating the decision making process to the people who are in the position to devise the best balance between the advantages and disadvantages of various methods of reducing polluting emissions. There are different methods by which a firm can reduce its pollution, most often being directly tied into complicated technological processes unique to its operations or industry.
Consequently, unless the cooperation of management and technicians within the industry or activity can be effectively mobilized by self-interest motivation, it is unlikely that the best solution will be attained (12). In addition, as mentioned earlier, nearly all other methods of reducing air pollutants involve a degree of arbitrary decision making on the part of officials charged with administering controls. Such controls may be necessary to even the best ECT system, but if administered in conjunction with such a system then the necessary discriminations will at least be minimized. In such a case when controls need to be imposed, they will be done (if not in practice at least in perception) in a much more unilateral manner. This eliminates the perception of arbitrariness and discrimination, which in turn leads to greater levels of compliance and cooperation amongst corporations (12). Furthermore, a system of Emission Credit Trading is at least in principle, highly flexible, in that the market price will vary in accordance with changing circumstances, even changing weather conditions.
Technically, this may be difficult to incorporate immediately, but the potential for development is present. Perhaps most importantly, the use of ECT forces the air pollution problem to be brought into perspective. Once transnational corporations take a stake in the problem, an eco-society becomes more plausible. The reason for this is because of the power that they yield, and the influence which they are capable of spreading. Pollution costs shall also be internalized into the cost of production. This has the effect of greater adoptions of emission reduction technology, since there is a monetary incentive to do so.
And with the increasing levels of global competitiveness these transnational corporations (as well as local firms) can not afford to ignore any forms of cost reductions. As well, in this day of information highways and increased consumer awareness firms which adopt environmentally sound practices are much likelier to show healthier bottom lines. Air pollution in recent years has become one of the more serious environmental concerns because of the many implications involved. The problem has reached a degree of considerable concern; however because of the lack of political will to attack the problem in a radical manner (because of the economic distortions it would create) a market oriented alternative must be approached. There are many areas which need to be addressed so as to develop a comprehensive pollution reduction program. All sources of air pollution (industrial, home and vehicle) must be taken into account when dealing with the problem.
However, by introducing environmentally friendly concepts such as Emission Credit Trading a serious reduction in air pollution can be achieved and the initial steps toward the eco-society taken. Obviously this is not the ideal, having to put a price on the air we breathe so as to ensure its quality, but unfortunately it is the most viable option considering the social system in which we all live. Bibliography: 1. U.
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Schultz, T. Diehl, G. P. Brasseur, W. Zit tel, Science 302, 624 (2003). 6.
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Shine, R. G. Derwent, D. J. Wuebbles, J. J.
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Research essay sample on Important To Note Air Pollution
