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| 2. |
- Slunge, Daniel, 1968, et al.
(författare)
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REACH authorisation and the substitution of hazardous chemicals: The case of trichloroethylene
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-6526. ; 364
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Through a survey with European companies and expert interviews we study how REACH authorisation affects the phase-out of hazardous chemicals focusing on trichloroethylene, a well-studied solvent used in metal parts cleaning. We find that most of the firms have substituted trichloroethylene by perchloroethylene, which has similar chemical characteristics. This allows them to continue to use the same machines and routines at low costs. Although perchloroethylene is only classified as a suspected rather than a proven carcinogenic substance in Europe, the “improvement” as the result of much regulatory effort must be considered fairly limited, particularly in the light of less hazardous alternatives being used on the market for a long time. Our survey shows that the REACH authorisation process has some effect. Many firms cited as their main reason for substitution that they wanted to avoid the renewed application process. Still, the fact that many firms report using old machines reinforces the impression that some firms are not feeling enough pressure to modify routines and engage in a more fundamental substitution process. The results illustrate the limited effectiveness of a substance by substance approach in chemical risk management. When companies can substitute chemicals of concern to substances with similar chemical characteristics, the health and environmental objectives of chemical regulation are not achieved. An important policy conclusion is that additional incentives need to be introduced in order to realize the ambition of a non-toxic environment in the European Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability. Increased use of measures targeting broader groups of structurally similar hazardous chemicals, in combination with fees that incentivize substitution, are promising avenues for a more sustainable European chemicals strategy.
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| 3. |
- Yeh, Sonia, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Tradable performance standards in the transportation sector
- 2021
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Ingår i: Energy Economics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0140-9883 .- 1873-6181. ; 102
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Performance standards have a long history in environmental policy. A performance standard sets a standard of technology performance but leaves technology choice to producers; it increases the relative costs of technologies with undesirable performance characteristics and lowers the costs of technologies with desirable characteristics. The primary motivations are to promote innovation, to address consumers' undervaluation of efficiency, and to reduce externalities, such as air pollution and the risks of dependence on foreign oil. In the past decade, trading has been incorporated (thus termed as tradable performance standard, TPS) into several U.S. transportation programs: regulations for greenhouse gas emissions from passenger cars and trucks (national), zero-emission vehicle programs (10 states), the Renewable Fuel Standard (national), and low-carbon fuel standards (two states). TPS allows for equalization of marginal costs across eligible technologies and is therefore more efficient than pure regulations. We show that sectoral TPS programs have high credit prices but low price effects on products and provide strong incentives for upstream innovation and technology transformation. Unlike emissions pricing, however, they do not have a strong output effect: consumers do not bear the full cost of the pollution and do not have incentive to reduce consumption of polluting products. Given that the expected carbon price may be too low to substantially affect transportation demand or technology change, combining TPS with a carbon price may be necessary to drive innovation and achieve a sustained low-carbon transformation in the sector.
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| 4. |
- Sterner, Thomas, 1952, et al.
(författare)
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Policy design for the Anthropocene
- 2019
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Ingår i: Nature Sustainability. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2398-9629. ; 2, s. 14-21
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- © 2019, Springer Nature Limited. Today, more than ever, ‘Spaceship Earth’ is an apt metaphor as we chart the boundaries for a safe planet1. Social scientists both analyse why society courts disaster by approaching or even overstepping these boundaries and try to design suitable policies to avoid these perils. Because the threats of transgressing planetary boundaries are global, long-run, uncertain and interconnected, they must be analysed together to avoid conflicts and take advantage of synergies. To obtain policies that are effective at both international and local levels requires careful analysis of the underlying mechanisms across scientific disciplines and approaches, and must take politics into account. In this Perspective, we examine the complexities of designing policies that can keep Earth within the biophysical limits favourable to human life.
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| 5. |
- Samuelsson, Bo, 1942, et al.
(författare)
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From Here to Sustainability – Is the Lisbon/Göteborg agenda delivering?
- 2004
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Executive Summary The European Councils held in Lisbon (2000) and in Göteborg (2001) gave the Union a new direction by establishing a long term strategy with sustainable development as the overarching objective. Sustainable development means, in this context, goals for economic, social and environmental policy, which are both mutually consistent and capable of delivering enhanced economic growth. To assure progress towards an agreed range of targets, the open method of coordination (OMC) has been adopted as the process for the implementation of the strategy. The strategy for sustainable development is a long-term one and, although the deadline originally set for the Lisbon agenda was 2010, it is clear that sustainable development has a much longer time-horizon and also that there is a global dimension to sustainable development, not just an EU one. In the run up to the mid-term review of the Lisbon strategy, this report by the European Panel for Sustainable Development, EPSD, offers an assessment of the EU approach to sustainable development. The report is based on official documents, research reports and background reports prepared by researchers from different disciplines. It concentrates on the EU-15 Member States, because the ten new members that acceded to the EU in May 2004 have not (yet!) been subject to the same commitments in relation to sustainable development. However, in future work by the EPSD, it is anticipated that the coverage will be extended to embrace all 25 Member States. The report starts with a discussion on the political process, followed by an examination of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of the strategy, of the potential of new technologies, and of the results delivered by the Member States. The final chapters include discussions on impact assessment and the global dimension of sustainable development. The focus of the report is on: − The integration of the three dimensions of sustai nable development and the policies that affect them into one coherent strategy − The implementation of the strategy through the open method of co-ordination The main messages of the report are that it is vital to: • Maintain the original commitment to sustainable development as the overarching objective of the Lisbon strategy and improve the co-ordination between the three pillars of the strategy: the economic, social and environmental dimensions [...]
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| 6. |
- Slunge, Daniel, 1968, et al.
(författare)
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Environmental Fiscal Reform in East and Southern Africa and its Effects on Income Distribution
- 2010
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Ingår i: Rivista di Politica Economica. - 0035-6468. ; July-September 2009:VII-IX, s. 91-120
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The paper reviews the current use of instruments for environmental fiscal reform (EFR) in selected East and Southern African countries and analyzes the effects on income distribution from fuel taxes. Theoretical arguments for introducing taxes on environmental and fiscal grounds as well as potential trade-offs between environmental and fiscal objectives are discussed. While most African countries have introduced several environmental taxes, our analysis indicates there is a considerable potential to improve both revenue generation and environmental benefits. Building on detailed case studies of fuel consumption, we find that fuel taxes appear to be progressive and not regressive as often claimed.
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| 7. |
- Mukanjari, Samson, 1982, et al.
(författare)
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Coordinated Carbon Taxes or Tightened NDCs: Distributional Implications of Two Options for Climate Negotiations
- 2023
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Ingår i: Q Open. - 2633-9048. ; 3:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Concerns about fairness among countries remain significant obstacles to a stronger global climate treaty. This paper addresses the distributional implications of two mechanisms to strengthen the Paris Agreement, the incorporation of national carbon pricing, and the tightening of nationally determined contributions (NDCs). Both are found to be viable mechanisms. They are also less extreme, and therefore more acceptable, than both grandfathering, which favors the most fossil-intensive economies, and equal per capita allocation, which favors low-income countries that use less fossil fuel. However, compensatory funding for developing countries will also be needed at scale. An analysis of the ambitiousness of current climate policies shows a broad range of outcomes: the more ambitious NDCs have emission levels below either the per capita or grandfathering levels, and sometimes both. However, some NDCs, especially those tabled by the largest emitters, are severely lacking in ambition.
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| 8. |
- Rasmussen, Joel, 1978-, et al.
(författare)
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Gender and life-stage dependent reactions to the risk of radioactive contamination: A survey experiment in Sweden
- 2020
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Ingår i: PLoS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 15:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article proposes and examines gender and life-stage factors as determinants of public worry and risk avoidance in a nuclear fallout scenario. Drawing on a survey (N 2,291) conducted in Sweden, the article demonstrates statistically significant results that women as well as parents with children at home are more likely to express high levels of worry for radiation exposure and have a preference to move away from a fallout area despite assurance of successful remediation. Moreover, a negative relationship is shown between age and both worry for radiation exposure and preference to move. These novel results from Northern Europe thus support a life-stage framing of public risk attitudes. As radiation physicists develop new methods showing that women and children are at higher risk of cancer than other groups at the same radiation exposure, we may actually see the precaution among women and parents as a regulating mechanism for the higher objective risk they face. The results are moreover in agreement with studies of public risk reactions in Japan, creating a strong knowledge base that human-induced radiation pollution is largely an intolerable risk to the public. Considering the public opinion, managing an intolerable risk through risk mitigation by remediation alone is likely insufficient in many cases. A viable strategy would offer a range of social support options that enable individual decision-making and the protection of risk groups.
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| 9. |
- Andersson, David, 1979, et al.
(författare)
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DN Debatt: LRF och Svenskt flyg svarar inte om klimatmålen
- 2015
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Ingår i: Dagens Nyheter. - 1101-2447.
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Tidskriftsartikel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Sammantaget ser vi inget i motdebattörernas argument som talar emot att införa styrmedel, till exempel konsumtionsskatter, inom dessa områden där inga stora tekniska lösningar finns i sikte, skriver 14 miljö- och energiforskare i slutrepliken till sin text om flyg- och köttskatt (26/2).
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| 10. |
- Andersson, David, 1979, et al.
(författare)
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Nu krävs kraftfulla åtgärder mot nötkött och flygresor
- 2015
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Ingår i: Dagens Nyheter. - 1101-2447. ; 2015-02-27
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Svenskarnas globala utsläpp från köttkonsumtion och flygresor motsvarar hälften av de totala utsläppen på hemmaplan. I vår rapport till Naturvårdsverket föreslår vi tydliga styrmedel – som nya skatter – för att begränsa konsumtionen på dessa områden, skriver 14 miljö- och energiforskare.
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