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31. Fly Ash Management in India: A Critique of existing and proposed frameworks

Author:
Vidya Viswanathan, Kanchi Kohli, and Manju Menon
Publication Date:
08-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre for Policy Research, India
Abstract:
On 22.04.2021, India’s Environment Ministry published a Draft Fly Ash Notification, which was open for public comments for 60 days and sought to replace the earlier notifications with respect to fly ash management since 1999. As a response to the draft, we made a submission to the Ministry on the need to reassess the approach, design and content of the fly ash related regulations. This submission highlighted five main issues that lead to enforcement challenges in regulating fly ash. The Environmental Justice Program at Centre for Policy Research has been studying the issue of fly ash mismanagement and its failures in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Odisha. Based on our research on the regulatory gaps in fly ash management and the social and ecological impacts from it, we have put together a report which elaborates on the five main issues identified in the submission made to the Ministry. This report: Discusses the lacunae in the implementation of the existing fly ash management regulations using primary and secondary data. And compares the proposed draft against the backdrop of current status of fly ash management efforts.
Topic:
Environment, Pollution, and Management
Political Geography:
South Asia and India

32. Revitalize the Thai-U.S. Alliance by Tackling 21st Century Challenges: Let’s Start by Working Together to Address Marine Plastic Debris

Author:
Piper Anne Wind Campbell
Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
Ambassador (retired) Piper Anne Wind Campbell, Adjunct Professorial Lecturer at American University and former Chargé US Mission to ASEAN, explains that “In both countries, it seems, our younger populations are not aware of interesting joint initiatives that could inspire a greater sense of collaboration and alliance. The solution is to go beyond a defense emphasis and to revitalize the Thai-US alliance by tackling 21st century challenges.”
Topic:
Alliance, Youth, Pollution, and Plastic
Political Geography:
North America, Thailand, Southeast Asia, and United States of America

33. Why the United States Should Remain Engaged on Nuclear Power: Climate Change and Air Pollution

Author:
Matt Bowen
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP), Columbia University
Abstract:
Nuclear energy has shown much promise and faced considerable challenges since its origins in the mid-20th century. While the United States drove the early charge for safe nuclear power around the globe, its leadership has waned in recent decades. US reactors now under construction—following no orders for such plants in the United States for several decades—have gone well over planned budgets and schedules. And while the United States was once the leading international supplier of reactors, other countries have since stepped forward to fill that role. Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, as part of its wider work on nuclear energy, is examining the impact of potential American disengagement from nuclear power’s development and where opportunities exist to step back in and shape its future. The program also will assess the US nuclear waste management program and efforts to collaborate with other countries on advanced reactor development, as well as options for improvement on both fronts. This effort will begin with a two-part commentary on some of the benefits the United States might derive from increasing its engagement on nuclear power. The first in the series, this piece, explores the important role nuclear energy can play in lowering greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the worst potential outcomes of climate change. The second piece will examine the geopolitical and national security implications of the United States and its traditional allies effectively ceding the international nuclear energy marketplace to the Chinese and Russians. The nuclear program’s ultimate goal is to inform readers—policy makers, industry leaders, academics, and others—with objective, research-based analysis. It will strive in the months and years ahead to contribute constructively to a necessary dialogue on the future of nuclear power.
Topic:
Environment, Nuclear Power, Pollution, Air Pollution, and Nuclear Energy
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

34. Pursuing a Clean Air Agenda in India During the COVID Crisis

Author:
Santosh Harish and Shibani Ghosh
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre for Policy Research, India
Abstract:
Air quality was gradually gaining political salience in India in the last few years, but COVID-19 and the deepening economic recession may now change the speed, and possibly the direction, of progress. The aim of this report is to begin the process, even amidst uncertainties, of understanding the effects of the COVID crisis on the air quality discourse in the country, and on the mitigation efforts already underway. We begin with a brief overview of the air quality improvements observed during the lockdown, and then identify some likely implications of the pandemic on how we frame the air quality problem. In view of state actions and public response during the COVID crisis, how should we, if at all, adapt our current framing of air pollution as a public health crisis? In the next section, we discuss broad financial, regulatory and institutional implications: in particular, the need to engage with the available funding channels to initiate and sustain measures to improve air quality amid significant fiscal constraints. There is a worrying erosion of environmental safeguards, which may – in part – be justified as a prerequisite to restarting the economy, and facilitating “ease of doing business”. Given that air quality management in India needs a multi-pronged approach across disparate sources, we then reflect on how the disruptions affect each of the major sources, and the resultant opportunities and challenges.
Topic:
Environment, Governance, Pollution, Public Health, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
South Asia and India

35. WTO accession, trade expansion, and air pollution: Evidence from China’s county-level panel data

Author:
Shuai Chen, Faqin Lin, Xi Yao, and Peng Zhang
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
This study provides evidence that trade expansion has contributed to the degradation of air pollution in China. On the basis of different responses of counties’ trade to China’s World Trade Organization accession at the end of 2001, we exploit air pollution data from NASA to construct a difference-in-differences predicted trade as an instrument for our identification. We document statistically significant and robust evidence on trade expansion, which accounts for approximately 60% and 20% for the increase of PM2.5 and SO2, respectively, in China. Findings on trade pollution relation are robust to various tests. Deterioration in the environment is mainly driven by scale and trade in polluting sectors.
Topic:
Trade, Pollution, and WTO
Political Geography:
China and Asia

36. Is Coronavirus Good for Our Sick Planet?

Author:
Luca Franza
Publication Date:
03-2020
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Dolphins are being spotted in harbours, canals in Venice have never looked so clean and the temporary ban of corridas has spared the lives of a hundred Spanish bulls. Looking at the bright side of things is an admirable quality, but we should not get too carried away with the idea that COVID-19 is good for the planet. Besides the anecdotal phenomena quoted above, the collapse of mobility and economic activity induced by COVID-19 are generating meaningful short-term consequences for the environment. These include a sharp reduction in Hubei’s and Northern Italy’s air pollution levels and a likely reduction in global CO2 emissions in 2020. Rejoicing over such news rests on a short-sighted view. The interlinkages between COVID-19, energy and climate issues are so complex that we are actually looking at a mixed bag of consequences.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, Pollution, and Coronavirus
Political Geography:
China, Europe, and Global Focus

37. Tailpipe Wars: The Presidential Politics of U.S. Auto Emissions

Author:
Ryan Warsing
Publication Date:
05-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:
School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:
Despite growing consensus that climate change is real, manmade, and pernicious, the U.S. Congress has failed to update old laws – to say nothing of passing new ones – that might mitigate the crisis. State governments have attempted to fill the void, with California setting de facto national policy using powers delegated under the 1970 Clean Air Act (CAA). The Trump administration’s 2019 bid to revoke these powers rejects the process of “iterative federalism” and leads one to believe Trump’s agenda is both vindictive in nature and impervious to broad support for environmental regulation. Yet this support (even in electorally pivotal states like Pennsylvania) proves a weak motivating factor next to the needs of vulnerable constituencies, notably autoworkers. Trump’s agenda is rationally set by his need to attract support in states like Michigan where votes are precious and regulatory exposure is high. Long a means for the federal government to enjoy environmental progress at a safe political distance, the “California carve-out” seems to have exhausted its utility with the Trump administration, which deems all environmental regulation anathema to growth and the happiness of its base. Trump’s rationale is best understood using Conditional Pandering Theory (CPT), which predicts that presidents with middling approval numbers are apt to be led by the public as Election Day draws near and policy outcomes can be delayed. In the case of emissions, policy outcomes are immaterial so long as targeted marginal voters deliver the president a second term.
Topic:
Climate Change, Legislation, Pollution, Domestic Policy, and Carbon Emissions
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

38. Sustainability and Ancient Wisdom

Author:
Gauri Shankar Gupta
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
India International Centre (IIC)
Abstract:
The existence of life is closely intertwined with nature. Nature provides the support system for the survival of different species of life that exist on planet earth. As evident from historical records, for thousands of years, humanity lived in a harmonious relationship with nature. The Industrial Revolution marked a major turning point in the earth’s ecology and humans’ relationship with their environment. Particularly, since the 1950s, with the combination of capitalism, consumerism and contamination, a serious conflict has arisen between man and nature. Extraction of minerals at an unprecedented rate, degradation of soil, manifold increase in water usage, massive contamination of water bodies, increasing air pollution and nonbiodegradable waste, deforestation and loss of biodiversity are posing new threats to the very existence of humanity. In this context, the article examines the wisdom of our ancestors for restoration of harmony between man and nature so that the survival of our progeny is not endangered.
Topic:
Environment, History, Pollution, Sustainability, Nature, Ecology, and Industrial Revolution
Political Geography:
South Asia and India

39. In Defense of Alternatives to Pollution Pricing

Author:
Garth Heutel
Publication Date:
05-2020
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Economics for Inclusive Prosperity (EfIP)
Abstract:
2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of economist Arthur Cecil Pigou’s The Economics of Welfare. This book is widely recognized as introducing the concept of Pigouvian welfare economics, that is, of using the basic tools of neoclassical economics to study how to improve the functioning of the economy and people’s lives. While Pigou’s analysis touched on many topics in the economy, the part of Pigouvian welfare economics most remembered today by environmental economists (and perhaps by anyone who has taken an introductory microeconomics course) is his theory of externalities. Pigou argued that externalities, like pollution or congestion, create market failures, but that they can be cost-effectively remedied using taxes or subsidies. These price policies have come to be known as Pigouvian pricing, or Pigouvian taxes or subsidies. If there is one common lesson argued by most environmental economists today regarding the design of environmental policy, it is: the best way to correct the market failure caused by pollution is Pigouvian pricing. According to this argument, a price should be levied on pollution equal to the value of the damages it causes to society. The price can be directly applied via a pollution tax, or indirectly via a cap-and-trade system where the permit price becomes the Pigouvian price on pollution. If the price is correct, then the most efficient outcome will be realized, and it will be achieved at the lowest possible cost to society. A corollary is that environmental policies other than price policies, for example technology mandates or performance standards (what economists often call “command-and-control” policies), are inferior and should not be used.
Topic:
Economics, Environment, Natural Resources, Regulation, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Pollution, and Price
Political Geography:
Global Focus

40. Çevre Koruma Harcamalarının Çevre Kirliliği Üzerindeki Etkisi: Seçilmiş OECD Ülkeleri Analizi

Author:
Tunahan Deği̇rmenci̇ and Veysel Inal
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bilgi
Institution:
Sakarya University (SAU)
Abstract:
Çevre kirliliğinin azaltılmasına yönelik dünya çapında adımlar atılmaktadır. Ülkeler, çevre dostu üretim ve tüketim faaliyetleri için vergileme yoluna giderken, diğer yandan çevresel harcamalar yapmaktadır. Bu çalışmada, çevre koruma harcamaları ve çevre kirliliği arasındaki ilişki yüksek gelir grubundaki 23 OECD ülkesi için incelenmektedir. 1995-2017 dönemine ait yıllık veriler kullanılarak panel veri analizi gerçekleştirilmiştir. Analizlerde yatay kesit bağımlılığını dikkate alan ikinci nesil testler tercih edilmiştir. Çalışma sonuçlarına göre çevre kirliliği ve çevre koruma harcamaları arasında uzun dönemde eşbütünleşme ilişkisi vardır. Bununla birlikte, çevre koruma harcamalarından çevre kirliliğine bir nedensellik ilişkisi söz konusudur.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, Pollution, and Data
Political Geography:
Turkey and Global Focus