GEP2: Acidification

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GEP2 Acidification

• The problem Origins, sources, mechanisms and
  consequences
• Emission reduction targets and measures
• National and international policies
• Why was the European acid rain policy successful?
• Cost-effectiveness
• Emissions trading

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Origins

• Acidification became apparent in Europe in the
  1960s
• Lakes and streams in Scandinavia showed marked
  changes in acidity
• Rain was observed to become more acid over large
  parts of Europe
• Deterioration of forests was linked to exposure
  to acid substances and soil changes
• This led to research on causes, consequences and
  remedies

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Sources

• Sulphur dioxide (SO2) was the first culprit, soon
  joined by nitrogen oxides (NOx)
• SO2 originates almost entirely from fossil fuel
  combustion, in power plants and vehicles
• NOx comes from transport and, via ammonia (NH3),
  from agriculture
• Acidification has shared causes with climate
  change, eutrophication and urban air quality

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Mechanisms

• Once in the atmosphere, emissions are carried
  long distances (1000 km) and transformed before
  being deposited after a couple of days
• Acid rain can be dry and wet
• Dry deposition direct uptake by vegetation
• Wet deposition acidic substances in rain drops
• Changes in the acidicity of air, water and soil
  have a range of consequences

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Consequences

• Increased acidity of lakes leads to aluminium
  poisoning, salt and oxygen starvation
• Increased acidity of soils and air leads to
  forest damage, through roots and leaves
• Human health is affected, through acidic air and
  water
• Damages to some stone, metal, glass
• Loss of visibility

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Targets

• In Europe, the standard way of measuring the
  impacts of acidification is with critical loads
  and exceedence
• In soils, sulphate and nitrate ions displace base
  ions, which are leached
• Base ions are replenished by weathering and
  atmospheric deposition
• The critical load is that acid deposition at
  which base leaching and replenishment are equal
• Otherwise, exceedence

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Targets -2

• Critical loads are an environmental concept
• Human welfare does not come into play Concern
  for the balance of nature overrides
• (Well see alternatives later on)
• Critical loads are officially adopted by most if
  not all countries in Europe as the prime goal of
  acidification policy

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Countermeasures

• End of pipe
• Washing coal
• Adding powdered limestone
• Flue gas desulpherisation
• Fuel switching
• Energy conservation
• Economic shrink
• Similar options for agriculture and transport

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International Policy

• First, there was an agreement between a number of
  western European countries to cut emissions by
  30
• Second, there was a deal between all European
  countries to bring deposition to its critical
  load, and to close 60 of the gap by 2010
  country targets were differentiated, and the East
  got help
• Third, people started paying attention to the
  costs and the distribution of the costs of all
  this

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Reasons for Success

• In Europe, acid deposition is falling
• Why? It is a prisoners dilemma!
• Vehicles also contributed to urban air pollution
• Power plants typically operated by
  semi-governments
• There was strong public demand, and a not
  excessively expensive technical fix
• Coal, the dirtiest fuel, was becoming less and
  less competitive
• Eastern European industry collapsed

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Tradeable Permits

• The government set an overall target on
  consumption, production or, most common, emission
• Each producer obtains a certain amount of
  emission permits, can sell these, or buy more at
  the market place
• If the permit market is perfect, all producers
  pay the same price, and marginal costs of
  production increase uniformly
• Taxes and tradeable permits are equivalent
  provided that the regulator knows all marginal
  abatement costs

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Cost-effectiveness
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Cost-effectiveness -2
So, a tradeable permit scheme, equalising
the marginal abatement costs, would not be
optimal!
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Tradeable Permits -2

• Alternative instruments to tradeable permits
  include taxes and emission standards
• Technical standards involve detailed regulation,
  leading to large costs exactly the reason why
  people are now debating alternatives
• Taxes, if they are to be optimal, need to be
  geographically differentiated too, and this is
  hard to sell politically

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Tradeable Permits -3

• So, people are now considering zones with
  reasonably homogenous atmospheric transport and
  ecological impacts
• Within those zones, tradeable permits are perfect
  substitutes
• Between zones, an exchange rate is used
• What are the cost savings?
• To answer this, atmospheric transport and
  deposition models are coupled to models of the
  direct costs of emission reduction

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Costs of Emission Reduction
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Tradeable Permits -4

• For tradeable permits to work, you need to be
  able to monitor emissions and to enforce
  emissions caps
• For acidifying substances, in Europe, monotoring
  is no problem
• Enforcement is a problem
• Eastern European countries would think twice
  before insulting the European Union
• Although EU law provides the mechanisms, a
  head-on confrontation with a big member state
  would be won by the state not the EU