Air pollution policies in Europe: efficiency gains from integrating climate effects with damage costs to health and crops

Tollefsen, Petter; Rypdal, Kristin; Torvanger, Asbjørn; Rive, Nathan

doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2009.08.006

Cited by 53 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Prior studies have provided compelling demonstrations of the importance of linkages between climate change and air quality valuation (e.g. (Caplan and Silva 2005;Nemet et al 2010;Tollefsen et al 2009)) and of the incorporation of economics into emission metrics (e.g. (Johansson 2012;Tanaka et al 2013)), but typically have not fully represented the climate impact of short-lived emissions, especially aerosols and methane (e.g.…”

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confidence: 99%

The social cost of atmospheric release

2015

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I present a multi-impact economic valuation framework called the Social Cost of Atmospheric Release (SCAR) that extends the Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) used previously for carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) to a broader range of pollutants and impacts. Values consistently incorporate health impacts of air quality along with climate damages. The latter include damages associated with aerosol-induced hydrologic cycle changes that lead to net climate benefits when reducing cooling aerosols. Evaluating a 1 % reduction in current global emissions, benefits with a high discount rate are greatest for reductions of co-emitted products of incomplete combustion (PIC), followed by sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ), nitrogen oxides (NO x ) and then CO 2 , ammonia and methane. With a low discount rate, benefits are greatest for PIC, with CO 2 and SO 2 next, followed by NO x and methane. These results suggest that efforts to mitigate atmosphere-related environmental damages should target a broad set of emissions including CO 2 , methane and aerosol/ozone precursors. Illustrative calculations indicate environmental damages are $330-970 billion yr −1 for current US electricity generation (~14-34¢ per kWh for coal,~4-18¢ for gas) and $3.80 (−1.80/+2.10) per gallon of gasoline ($4.80 (−3.10/+3.50) per gallon for diesel). These results suggest that total atmosphere-related environmental damages plus generation costs are much greater for coal-fired power than other types of electricity generation, and that damages associated with gasoline vehicles substantially exceed those for electric vehicles.

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confidence: 99%

The social cost of atmospheric release

2015

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“…BC also shows semi-direct effects through interaction with cloud processes (Koch and Del Genio, 2010). Moreover, the impacts of BC aerosols on the radiative balance may lead to far-reaching consequences, such as global dimming (Wild et al, 2007), lower crop yields (Tollefsen et al, 2009), and negative impacts on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems (Forbes et al, 2006).…”

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confidence: 99%

Black carbon aerosol in winter northeastern Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, China: the source, mixing state and optical property

et al. 2015

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Abstract. Black carbon (BC) aerosol at high altitudes of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau has potential effects on the regional climate and hydrological cycle. An intensive measurement campaign was conducted at Qinghai Lake ( ∼ 3200 m above sea level) at the edge of the northeastern QinghaiTibetan Plateau during winter using a ground-based single particle soot photometer (SP2) and a photoacoustic extinctiometer (PAX). The average concentration of refractory BC (rBC) and number fraction of coated rBC were found to be 160 ± 190 ng m −3 and 59 % for the entire campaign, respectively. Significant enhancements of rBC loadings and number fraction of coated rBC were observed during a pollution episode, with an average value of 390 ng m −3 and 65 %, respectively. The mass size distribution of rBC particles showed log-normal distribution, with a peak diameter of ∼ 187 nm regardless of the pollution level. Five-day backward trajectory analysis suggests that the air masses from north India contributed to the increased rBC loadings during the campaign. The potential source contribution function (PSCF) model combined with the fire counts map further proves that biomass burning from north India is an important potential source influencing the northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau during the pollution episode. The rBC mass absorption cross section (MAC rBC ) at λ = 532 nm was slightly larger in clean days (14.9 m 2 g −1 ) than during the pollution episode (9.3 m 2 g −1 ), likely due to the effects of brown carbon and the uncertainty of the MAC rBC calculation. The MAC rBC was positively correlated with number fraction of coated rBC during the pollution episode with an increasing rate of 0.18 (m 2 g −1 ) % −1 . The number fraction of coated rBC particles showed positive correlation with light absorption, suggesting that the increase of coated rBC particles will enhance the light absorption. Compared to rBC mass concentration, rBC mixing sate is more important in determining absorption during the pollution episode, estimated from the same percentage-wise increment of either rBC mass concentration or the number fraction of coated rBC. The estimated BC direct radiative forcing was +0.93 W m −2 for the pollution episode, which is 2 times larger than that in clean days. Our study provides insight into the potential climatic impacts of rBC aerosol transported to the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau from south Asian regions, and is also useful for future modeling studies.

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“…well-being, of individual plants and communities, together with their associated organisms, both in (semi)natural and cultivated ecosystems (Cook 2000;Ostry and Laflamme 2009;Tollefsen et al 2009). However, from a biosecurity perspective, and for the purposes of this text, plant health is a term which refers to the legislative and administrative procedures used by governments to prevent plant pests from entering and spreading within their territories (Ebbels and King 1979).…”

Section: What Is Plant Health?mentioning

confidence: 98%