Acid Rain

David M Newbery

No 442, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Acid rain is caused by sulphur dioxide (SO2), largely from power stations, and nitrogen oxides (NOx), half of which comes from vehicles. The paper attempts to quantify the costs and benefits of abatement in Europe, and concludes that the current agreement on uniform reductions from 1980 levels is inefficient and costly. The evidence suggests that SO2 pollution from power stations is costly and should be reduced. The damage done by different polluters varies significantly with location, as does the cost of abatement. A better solution is payment for reductions from benchmark levels, but tradable permits give rise to problems within the privatized but duopolized electricity-generating industry in the United Kingdom. The emphasis on reducing NOx emissions from vehicles seems misplaced and costly. For both pollutants the present state of knowledge about the costs of the damage done is poor and is a major impediment to rational policy making.

Keywords: Acid Rain; Bargaining; Cost-benefit; International Agreement; Pollution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1990-08
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=442 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:442

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.cepr.org/ ... pers/dp.php?dpno=442

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().