The School of Geography and Water@Leeds, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom.
J Environ Manage. 2015 Feb 1;149:97-107. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2014.10.012. Epub 2014 Nov 5.
Much of England is seriously water stressed and future droughts will present major challenges to the water industry if socially and economically damaging supply restrictions are to be avoided. Demand management is seen as a key mechanism for alleviating water stress, yet there are no truly effective incentives to encourage widespread adoption of the behavioural and technological demand management practices available. Water pricing could promote conservation, but on its own it is an inefficient tool for dealing with short term restriction in water supply. Raising prices over the short term in response to a drought is likely to be ineffectual in lowering demand sufficiently; conversely, maintaining high prices over the long term implies costs to the consumer which are needlessly high most of the time. We propose a system for developing resilience to drought in highly water stressed areas, based on a cap and trade (C&T) model. The system would represent a significant innovation in England's water market. However, international experience shows that C&T is successful in other sectors, and need not be overly complex. Here, we open the debate on how a C&T system might work in England.
英格兰大部分地区严重缺水，如果要避免社会和经济上破坏性的供水限制，未来的干旱将给供水行业带来重大挑战。需求管理被视为缓解水资源紧张的关键机制，但目前没有真正有效的激励措施来鼓励广泛采用现有的行为和技术需求管理措施。水价可以促进节约用水，但单靠水价本身，它并不是解决短期供水限制的有效工具。在干旱期间短期提价可能不足以有效降低需求；相反，长期维持高水价意味着消费者长期承担不必要的高成本。我们提出了一个基于总量管制和排放交易（cap and trade，C&T）模型的方案，旨在为水资源严重短缺地区应对干旱提供弹性。该系统将是英格兰水市场的一项重大创新。然而，国际经验表明，C&T 在其他领域是成功的，而且不必过于复杂。在这里，我们开启了关于 C&T 系统在英国如何运作的辩论。
