Environmental management (1 Viewer)

[BackCountrySnow]

What policy options are available to governments in addressing environmental issues?

 

[vmoore]

taxation.
by introducing taxes, such as the carbon trading tax, governments are able to reflect the social costs in the price mechanism. thus, by overcoming market failure, environmental issues such as the depletion of natural resources can be effectivly managed as the quantity demanded for certain non-renewable resources such as crude oil decreases.
regulations.
others include regulations (overcoming free riding), subsadies (does similar thing to tax but with rtesources such as ethanol - renewables), property rights, compensation (for houses to install water tanks ect), market based pricing

let me know if you need explanations on any of thoes

 

[pissedoff]

taxation.
by introducing taxes, such as the carbon trading tax, governments are able to reflect the social costs in the price mechanism. thus, by overcoming market failure, environmental issues such as the depletion of natural resources can be effectivly managed as the quantity demanded for certain non-renewable resources such as crude oil decreases.
regulations.
others include regulations (overcoming free riding), subsadies (does similar thing to tax but with rtesources such as ethanol - renewables), property rights, compensation (for houses to install water tanks ect), market based pricing

let me know if you need explanations on any of thoes

compensation and subsidies fall into the same category

there are also suasive or educational measures such as educating farmers about the need to replant trees after land clearing

and

Emissions trading. The govt is set to introduce this soon to reduce carbon emissions. It involves the govt agreeing on an acceptable amount of emission and issuing permits. These are then bidded from largest amount permeable to lowest amount permeable. If a company manages to reduce their emissions they can sell off their permits and recieve profit. These are advantageous in that they provide incentives to retain emissions as low as possible yet they're relatively new and loopholes have been exposed in Europe where they have been trialled

 

[Smeegen999]

What policy options are available to governments in addressing environmental issues?

Policies generally fall into one of 2 approaches (I find this easier to remember)

1. Command and control measures
- bans on the production of particular goods and services
- fines for damaging the environment (eg. PETA)

2. Market-based measures "internalising the externality"
- using taxes to discourage people purchasing a good (incorporating social cost of good eg. excise duty on petrol)
-subsidies eg. green loans
- carbon pollution reduction scheme - creating a market for buying and selling permits to produce carbon dioxide (incorporating social cost of carbon emissions).

 

[bazza159]

yeh like above

market based economic instruments (which internalise the externality/impose social costs on producers):

• taxes on pollution (to close the gap b/w private and social costs.
• fishing quotas
• fines for illegal dumpers of waste
• taxation incentives for green technologies

Regulatory regimes:

• land use zoning areas
• pollution laws
• environmental standards to be met by firms

Others:

• Montreal protocol - banning of CFCs
• Natural Heritage Trust to fund + co-ordinate environmental protection