Department of Economics and Management, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 27, 00014, Helsinki, Finland.
Ambio. 2019 Nov;48(11):1304-1313. doi: 10.1007/s13280-019-01257-z. Epub 2019 Sep 24.
We examine the abatement costs for water and climate pollutants and their respective policies while accounting for cobenefits. We construct private and social marginal cost curves for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and nutrient runoff in Finnish agriculture. We find that the social marginal costs of reducing emissions that reflect the cobenefits are lower than the private costs. Accounting for greenhouse gas cobenefits from nutrient load reduction or water cobenefits from climate emissions reduction creates a gap between privately and socially optimal reduction levels. This gap varies depending on the valuation of cobenefits. The cost-efficient reduction of the focus pollutant is increased when cobenefits from the other pollutant are accounted for. For policies, this implies a higher cap or tax on the focus pollutant. We decompose the optimal tax rate to a basic tax on the focus pollutant and on an additional tax component depending on the level of cobenefits.
我们考察了水污染和气候污染物减排成本及其相关政策,同时考虑了共同效益。我们构建了芬兰农业减少温室气体排放和营养物径流的私人和社会边际成本曲线。研究发现,反映共同效益的减排的社会边际成本低于私人成本。考虑到减少营养物负荷的温室气体共同效益或减少气候排放的水资源共同效益,会造成私人和社会最优减排水平之间的差距。这一差距取决于对共同效益的估值。当考虑到另一种污染物的共同效益时,焦点污染物的成本效益减排会增加。对于政策而言,这意味着对焦点污染物征收更高的上限或税收。我们将最优税率分解为对焦点污染物的基本税和根据共同效益水平而定的附加税部分。