Air pollution of fine particulates (PM2.5) is a leading cause of mortality worldwide. It is estimated that ambient PM2.5 air pollution results in between 4.1 million and 8.9 million premature deaths annually. According to the World Bank, the health effects of ambient PM2.5 air pollution had a cost of $6.4 trillion in purchasing power parity (PPP) adjusted dollars in 2019, equivalent to 4.8% of global gross domestic product (PPP adjusted) that year.
Estimating the health effects and cost of ambient PM2.5 air pollution involves three steps: (1) estimating population exposure to pollution; (2) estimating the health effects of such exposure; and (3) assigning a monetary value to the illnesses and premature deaths caused by ambient air pollution.
Estimating population exposure to ambient PM2,5 has gone from predominantly using ground level monitoring data mainly in larger cities to estimates of nationwide population weighted exposures based on satellite imagery and chemical transport models along with ground level monitoring data. The Global Burden of Disease 2010 (GBD 2010) provided for the first time national, regional and global estimates of exposures to ambient PM2.5. The GBD exposure estimates have also evolved substantially from 2010 to 2019, especially national estimates in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Estimation of health effects of ambient PM2.5 has also undergone substantial developments during the last two decades. These developments involve: i) going from largely estimating health effects associated with variations in daily exposures to estimating health effects of annual exposure; ii) going from estimating all-cause mortality or mortality from broad disease categories (i.e., cardiopulmonary diseases) to estimating mortality from specific diseases; and iii) being able to estimate health effects over a wide range of exposure that reflect ambient and household air pollution exposure levels in low- and middle-income countries.
As to monetary valuation of health effects of ambient air pollution, estimates in most low- and middle-income countries still rely on benefit transfer of values of statistical life (VSL) from high-income countries.
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Article
Environmental Degradation: Estimating the Health Effects of Ambient PM2.5 Air Pollution in Developing Countries
Ernesto Sánchez-Triana, Bjorn Larsen, Santiago Enriquez, and Andreia Costa Santos
Article
Lay Expertise, Botanical Science, and Botanic Gardens as “Contact Zones”
Katja Neves
Botanic gardens came into existence in the late 1500s to document, study, and preserve plants originating from all over the world. The scientific field of botany was a direct outcome of these developments. From the 1600s onward, botanic gardens also paid key roles in acclimatizing plants across distinct ecosystems and respective climate zones. This often entailed the appropriation of Indigenous systems of plant expertise that were then used without recognition within the parameters of scientific botanical expertise. As such, botanic gardens operated as contact zones of unequal power dynamics between European and Indigenous knowledge systems. Botanic gardens were intimately embroiled with the global expansion of European colonialism and processes of empire building. They helped facilitate the establishment of cash-crop systems around the world, which effectively amounted to the extractive systems of plant wealth accumulation that characterize the modern European colonial enterprise. In the mid-20th century, botanic gardens began to take on leading roles in the conservation of plant biodiversity while also attending to issues of social equity and sustainable development. Relationships between lay expertise and scientific knowledge acquired renewed significance in this context, as did discussions of the knowledge politics that these interactions entailed. As a consequence of these transformations, former colonial exchanges within the botanical garden world between Indigenous knowledge practices and their appropriation by science came under scrutiny in the final decades of the 20th century. Efforts to decolonize botanic gardens and their knowledge practices emerged in the second decade of the 20th century.
Article
A Māori Approach to Environmental Economics: Te ao tūroa, te ao hurihuri, te ao mārama—The Old World, a Changing World, a World of Light
Matthew Rout, Shaun Awatere, Jason Paul Mika, John Reid, and Matthew Roskruge
Māori, the Indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand, have an intrinsically environmental approach to economics. This approach—informed by the Māori worldview—was refined over the first millennium of inhabitation, before colonization brought the intrusion of Western institutions and the consequent involution of Māori institutions. Māori view humans as embedded within a wider nonhuman community of nature that is simultaneously spiritual and material. Māori understand “nature” as a unified spiritual-socioecology. Economics is just one facet of this whole, a facet fundamentally entwined with the whole such that all economic relationships have inherently social, spiritual, and ecological elements. At the core of Māori relationships with nature is the ethic of kaitiakitanga, or the act of guardianship over the spiritual-socioecology. Māori have a responsibility to actively care for their human and nonhuman community, to act with mana (authority and dignity), to respect nature’s tapu (sacredness), and to maintain nature’s mauri (life force). The Māori economy is underpinned by an integrated, nuanced, and adaptive framework of beliefs and institutions that constrains decision-making, ensuring the consideration of the human, nonhuman, and spiritual domains across time while simultaneously being calibrated toward delivering mutually beneficial outcomes within kin-group networks. This ensures that economic success does not come at the expense of other people, nature, or future generations. An economy based on a Māori worldview is, fundamentally, an environmental economy.
Following colonization, Māori suffered a loss of mana. Land was sold below market rate or stolen, and after massive deforestation and significant loss of native flora and fauna, Aotearoa New Zealand’s tapu was desecrated and its mauri reduced. In the mid- to late-20th century, Māori political activism and a resultant tribunal examining actions and omissions by the state during land acquisition resulted in Māori regaining mana. Consequently, Māori have overcome the drastic change in rights to their remaining land to act as kaitiaki (guardians) of this remaining land in ways both congruent with traditional practices (te ao tūroa) and adapted to changed context (te ao hurihuri). Māori have realigned the imposed governance structures of their organizations to reinstate their original focus on the intergenerational well-being of human and nonhuman communities, reinvigorating the influence of mana in business, and its capacity to create a virtuous circle. Māori have managed to thrive in the settler and global economy not despite their environmentally grounded economic approach, but because of it.
Article
Carbon Taxes
Jorge H. García and Thomas Sterner
Economists argue that carbon taxation (and more generally carbon pricing) is the single most powerful way to combat climate change. Since this is so controversial, we need to explain it better, and to be precise, the efficiency gains are largest when the costs of abatement are strongly heterogeneous. This is often—but not always—the case. When it is not, standards can fill much the same role.
To internalize the climate externality, economic efficiency calls for a global carbon tax (or price) that is equal to the global damage or the so-called social cost of carbon. However, equity considerations as well as existing geographical and sectoral differences in the effectiveness of carbon taxation at reducing emissions, suggest earlier implementation of relatively high taxation levels in some sectors or countries—for instance, among richer economies followed by a more gradual phase-in among low-income countries.
The number of national and subnational carbon pricing policies that have been implemented around the world during the first years following the Paris Agreement of 2015 is significant. By 2020, these programs covered 22% of global emissions with an average carbon price (weighted by the share of emissions covered) of USD15/tCO2 and a maximum price of USD120/tCO2. The share of emissions covered by carbon pricing as well as carbon prices themselves are expected to consistently rise throughout the decade 2021–2030 and beyond. Many experts agree that the social cost of carbon is in the range USD40–100/tCO2.
Anti-climate lobbying, public opposition, and lack of understanding of the instrument are among the key challenges faced by carbon taxation. Opportunities for further expansion of carbon taxation lie in increased climate awareness, the communicative resources governments have to help citizens understand the logic behind carbon taxation, and earmarking of carbon tax revenues to address issues that are important to the public such as fairness.
Article
Economics and the Endangered Species Act
Joe Kerkvliet
Economics plays strong roles in the design, implementation, and evaluation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). First, the ESA’s language allows for economic analysis of critical habitat designations, recovery plan implementations, listing postponements, and the design of habitat-conservation plans. Extensive administrative changes to the ESA in the 1990s were designed to reduce economic costs and to elicit landowners’ cooperation. These reforms were partly motivated and guided by economic analysis. Second, economic analysis plays a role in providing credible estimates of the economic costs of ESA implementation. Cost estimates are highly variable and likely to depend on species’ characteristics and the effectiveness of recovery programs. Emerging evidence suggests that the 1990 reforms are reducing costs and increasing effectiveness. Third, economic science contributes to estimation of benefits. Because of the “public goods” nature of nearly all ecosystem and species conservation efforts, estimates must be based on stated preference methods. This use leads to difficulties in establishing the authenticity of benefits estimates. Also, research suggests that benefits estimates are highly sensitive to the spatial nature of the market (beneficiaries’ geographic locations). Future research needs to tackle both authenticity and spatial issues. Fourth, benefit–cost analysis (BCA) is required by law to inform many resource decisions affecting ecosystem and species conservation. Four illustrative BCAs show that whether benefits exceed costs is highly dependent on the authenticity of benefits based on stated preference methods and assumptions about the spatial nature of the market. Substantial uncertainty accompanies both benefit and cost estimates.
Article
Effects of Meteorological and Air Pollutant Factors on the Deaths from COVID-19 in Chinese Cities: A Spatial Panel Data Analysis
Faysal Mansouri and Zouheir Mighri
Coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic was first identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019. Its human-to-human transmission was confirmed on January 20, 2020 and rapidly escalated into a global pandemic.
Coronavirus exponential spread has caused overwhelming challenges to global public health and left households and businesses counting huge economic losses.
These unprecedented global circumstances have forced policymakers to work under bilevel pressure: implement successful containment strategies and in the meantime get society and the economy to a new normal path—in other words, a trade-off between successful containment strategy and optimal reopening strategy.
As the pandemic evolves, a growing public and academic debate has taken place on the likelihood of the influence of meteorological factors as well as pollution elements on COVID-19 cycle. This potential association between meteorological factors and COVID-19 spread inevitably shapes containment strategies and social and economic reopening policy options.
An important growing literature has investigated this relationship using various statistical tools and approaches. Indeed, several researchers have attempted to provide evidence of statistical correlation between meteorological conditions as well as and air pollution factors and COVID-19 reported deaths?
Several studies have analyzed the association between meteorological factors and the spread of COVID-19 in local, regional, and global frameworks. A particular focus has been made on the identification of factors that might have impact on COVID-19 mortality rate as well as on the acceleration of diffusion of infection, for various countries including China.
Article
Environmental Economics of Pollination
Antoine Champetier
The pollination of crops by domesticated bees and wild pollinators is easily and often imagined as an accidental but essential process in agriculture. The notion that pollinators are overlooked despite their essential role in food production is widespread among the general public, as well as in policy debates concerning all issues related to pollinators, ranging from regulation of pesticides to conservation of habitat for wild bees, to support of beekeeping as an industry or as a hobby. Meade was the first to formalize this notion by making pollination a canonical example of beneficial externality in economics and arguing that subsidies should be established to ensure that honeybees are provided in optimal numbers to pollinate crops. In the first two decades of the 21st century, the same argument, but this time focusing on wild pollinators, has been proposed and supported by a large and growing literature in conservation ecology.
However, a thorough review of contributions on the economics of pollination reveals several misconceptions behind the appealing fable of pollination externalities. The most striking rebuttal of Meade’s argument comes from the study of pollination markets, where beekeepers and crop growers engage in voluntary transactions called pollination contracts. A small economics literature formalizes the issue of incentives solved by these transactions and provides a detailed empirical analysis of many complex aspects, such as the establishment of standards for the monitoring of bee densities or the impact of seasonality of blooms and bee population dynamics on pollination prices.
Outside pollination markets, economists have made rather sparse and partial contributions to several other important issues related to pollination in agriculture, such as valuation of pollination services, conservation of wild pollinators, and regulation of pesticides that impact pollinators. On these topics, studies have largely been published in non-economics journals and economists stand to make valuable contributions by applying and popularizing the concepts of incentive design, information costs, and other key insights of environmental economics in the study of pollination.
Article
Green Infrastructure for Stormwater Runoff Control in China
Haifeng Jia and Dingkun Yin
In the early 21st century, high-intensity human activities have led to the rapid development and expansion of urban areas in many countries, and these have had several adverse impacts upon the water environment. In particular, urban runoff quantity and quality control have emerged as key concerns for municipal officials. China, as one of the countries with rapid urbanization, faces many challenges in this process. Since the year 2000, China has been promoting the protection of its urban water environment using ecological construction. Use of green infrastructure (GI) to solve urban stormwater issues have become the priority of urban green and sustainable development. The Sponge City (SPC) approach was proposed to emphasize the comprehensive construction of multi-objective stormwater drainage and flood mitigation systems, and to consider water ecology, public safety, environmental protection, and preservation of water resources. The goal of GI is to achieve storm runoff quality enhancement and pollution control, which is similar to the sustainable development concept of SPC. According to its major functions, GI can be divided into infiltration and retention GI, regulation GI, transmission GI, pollution interception and treatment GI. GI should be planned and designed according to the long-term runoff volume capture ratio, which is determined by the annual rainfall depth and the level of catchment development at the project site. Different structural layer materials and spatial layout of GI have significant impact on their effects. Upon the completion of a project, long-term monitoring is recommended for evaluating its effectiveness. In order to ensure the continuous efficiency of GI, it is necessary to carry out regular maintenance. Different types of GI demand various maintenance methods and frequencies. Appropriate maintenance methods can effectively extend the service life of GI.
Article
Input–Output Models Applied to Environmental Analysis
Joaquim J.M. Guilhoto
Input–Output (I–O) models and analysis were originally conceived by the Nobel Prize winner Wassily Leontief in the 1930s as a tool that can be used by economists and economic policy makers to help in their decision process. The I–O models provide a “picture” of how the economy works, that is, what are the necessities to produce goods and services, how this production generates income, profits and taxes, and how this income is spent. In a simplified way the I–O models can be seen as the model implementation of the economy circular-flow diagrams usually shown in economics introductory courses. Associated with the theory behind I–O models and analysis, I–O tables contain the empirical information necessary to implement these models and theory.
Taking, for example, the production of computer screens:
• On the production side, the I–O models have information on: (a) how much is spent on the inputs, goods and services necessary to produce the screens; (b) whether these inputs have their origin in the domestic market or are imported; (c) how much was paid in tax to the government; (d) what was the total amount paid in wages and salaries; (e) what were the profits of the producing firms; (f) how many computer screens are sold on the domestic market or on the international market (exported); and (g) whether they are sold directly to the final consumer or are used as a production input, that is, incorporated into other goods, for example, a refrigerator with a computer screen;
• On the demand side, the I–O models, taking into consideration the total income received by the different players in the economy, that is, households, firms, and government, have information on: (a) how the income of these players is spent on goods and services, and whether it is used for consumption or investment; (b) whether these goods and services were produced domestically or abroad (imported); and (c) how much consumer tax was paid.
From the aforementioned structure of I–O models, and using economic mathematical models, it is possible to measure the direct and indirect inputs needed to produce goods and services in the economy, for example, to produce a car there is no need for agricultural goods as a direct input for production, but the fabric used in the car seats or on the car carpets could have come from cotton, which is an agricultural good, so, cotton is an indirect input used in car production.
I–O models, by their capability to show a complete picture of the economic system, and tracing of the origin of direct and indirect inputs used in the production process, can be used in environmental studies by linking economic and environmental variables, on the production and consumption sides. From the production side it is possible to measure, by considering the direct and indirect inputs used, how many natural resources were used and how much pollution was generated in producing the goods and services. On the demand side it is possible to measure the environmental variables, natural resources, and pollution, embodied in the goods and services consumed in the economy. Expanding I–O models to a global scale, that is, using inter-country I–O models, it is possible to measure the environmental impacts, and contents, of the goods and services by country of origin of production and by countries of consumption.
Article
The Economic and Health Impacts of Inadequate Sanitation
Luis Andrés, George Joseph, and Suneira Rana
Nearly half of the world’s population, 4.2 billion people, lack access to a hygienic sanitation facility. About 673 million people regularly defecate outdoors, in the open. Many of those who still lack access to sanitation services are among the most challenging populations to reach: the poorest, the most remote, and the most marginalized. Inadequate sanitation is also a major cause of death and disease in countries around the world, causing 432,000 diarrheal deaths annually and contributing to several neglected tropical diseases, including intestinal worm infections, schistosomiasis, and trachoma. It also contributes to malnutrition, adversely affecting early childhood development and thus affecting long-term outcomes, such as educational attainment and earnings in later life. The disease burden of inadequate sanitation overwhelmingly falls on the poor. Sanitation infrastructure access can result in direct benefits that households receive when they have access to sanitation services and an external benefit or externality produced by a community’s access to clean sanitation infrastructure. Thus, for the full benefits of sanitation infrastructure to be realized, efforts should focus on improving community-wide coverage of improved sanitation and eliminating open defecation. This expands the menu of policy options available for targeting conditions like anemia and undernutrition and would require a significant shift in thinking for many researchers and policymakers, who tend to overlook the important role of disease in determining “nutritional” outcomes.
Beyond their intrinsic value to human health and well-being, improved sanitation services would play a contributory and catalytic role in furthering progress toward other development goals, particularly those relating to education, and sustainable economic growth. Thus, furthering people’s access to adequate sanitation services is a necessary milestone in the global stride toward a sustainable, high quality of life for all.
