Environmental Economics Flashcards

Flashcards based on lecture notes about environmental economics, covering topics such as air and water pollution, climate change, and sustainable development.

What is the tragedy of the commons?

A situation where individuals acting independently and rationally according to each's self-interest behave contrary to the best interests of the whole group by depleting some common resource.

What are incentives?

Something that motivates an individual to perform an action.

What are subsides?

A sum of money granted by the government or a public body to assist an industry or business so that the price of a commodity or service may remain low or competitive.

What is Cap & Trade?

A system for controlling pollution whereby a limit is placed on overall emissions and companies can buy and sell permits which allow them to pollute.

What are Green Bonds/Climate Bonds?

A financial instrument used to raise funds for environmental or climate-related projects.

What are Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards?

Regulations in the United States to improve the average fuel economy of cars and light trucks produced for sale in the United States.

What is sequestration?

The process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide.

What is adaptation in the context of climate change?

Adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic effects or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities.

What is mitigation in the context of climate change?

A human intervention to reduce the sources or enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases.

What is restoration in ecological terms?

The process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed.

What are Carbon Markets?

Trading systems in which carbon credits are sold and bought. Carbon credits represent the right to emit one tonne of carbon dioxide or the equivalent amount of a different greenhouse gas.

What is the Social Cost of Carbon?

An estimate, in dollars, of the long-term damage done by a ton of carbon dioxide emissions in a given year.

What are Biodiversity offsets?

A policy tool where ecological damage from development is offset by preserving or restoring habitats elsewhere.

What is the Living Planet Index?

A measure tracking the state of global biological diversity based on population trends in vertebrate species.

What are debt for nature swaps?

An agreement in which a portion of a developing country’s debt is forgiven in exchange for local investments in conservation.

What is conservation banking?

A mechanism allowing developers to compensate for environmental impacts by purchasing credits from preserved habitats.

What is financing stability?

Maintenance of a stable financial system.

What is efficient allocation/allocation?

Resources are allocated to their most valuable uses.

What is the effect of return in economics?

The economic return that an investment generates.

What are ambient standards?

Maximum allowable levels of pollution in the ambient environment.

What is a zero discharge goal?

The aim of eliminating all pollutant discharge into a water body.

What was the main purpose of the Air Pollution Control Act (APCA) of 1955?

To authorize federal funding for research and technical assistance to states on air pollution matters.

Motor Vehicle Exhaust Study Act of 1960

Directed the Secretary of HEW to do a study on 'Motor Vehicles, Air Pollution and Health' within two years.

What did the Clean Air Act (CAA) of 1963 authorize?

Federal grants to states to develop state and local air pollution-control programs & established a conference system to deal with problems of interstate air pollution.

What was the main provision of the Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act of 1965?

Authorized the Secretary of HEW to set emission standards for new cars.

What did the Air Quality Act (AQA) of 1967 provide?

Additional grants to states to plan air pollution-control programs, interstate air pollution-control agencies; research expansion; HEW to establish air quality regions, publish air quality criteria and control technology reports.

What did the CAA Amendments of 1970 establish?

National ambient air quality standards (NAAQSS) for criteria pollutants; new-car emission standards along with certification programs; EPA to establish emission standards for major toxic or hazardous pollutants and technology-based emission standards for all new sources (NSPS) of the common air pollutants; state implementation plans (SIPs) to control existing stationary sources of air pollutants.

What are National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQSs)?

Standards established by the EPA for criteria pollutants to protect public health and welfare.

What are the primary and secondary standards for carbon monoxide?

Primary: 9 ppm (8 hours), 35 ppm (1 hour)

What are the primary and secondary standards for lead?

Primary and secondary: 0.15 μg/m³ (Rolling 3-month average)

What is the primary standard for Nitrogen dioxide?

Primary: 100 ppb (1 hour), 0.053 μ/m³ (Annual)

What are the primary and secondary standards for Ozone?

Primary and secondary: 0.070 ppm (8 hours)

What are the primary and secondary standards for Particle pollution, PM2.5?

Primary: 12 μ/m³ (Annual), 35 μg/m³ (24 hours); Secondary: 15 μ/m³ (Annual)

What are the primary and secondary standards for Particle pollution, PM 10?

Primary and secondary: 150 μ/m³ (24 hours)

What are the primary and secondary standards for Sulfur dioxide?

Primary: 75 ppb (1 hour); Secondary: 0.5 ppm (3 hours)

What was the goal of 'prevention of serious deterioration' (PSD) established by the CAA Amendments of 1977?

To protect areas already cleaner than the national standards.

What are Class I areas under the PSD provisions?

Areas where no additional air quality deterioration is permitted (includes national parks, etc.).

What is 'lowest achievable emission rate' (LAER)?

A technology standard for new sources in nonattainment areas.

What are 'best available control technologies' (BACT)?

A technology standard for new sources in PSD regions.

What were some key provisions of the CAA Amendments of 1990?

Tougher tailpipe standards for new cars, reduction of 189 toxic airborne emissions, and a system of transferable discharge permits among power plants to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions.

What are some of the focuses of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022?

Transition to electric vehicles and renewable energy sources, providing subsidies through tax reductions for shifting to non-fossil fuel technology.

What are the primary standards established in the 1970s Clean Air Act concerned with?

Levels of pollution that threaten the public health.

What do thresholds of pollutants indicate?

Levels below which damages are minimal or non-existent.

In the United States SO2 program, what can managers of a particular plant do with emissions permits?

Emit above the plant’s allowable level and purchase permits to cover the excess emissions, emit at or below the plant’s allowable level and hold on to any excess permits, or emit below the plant’s allowable level and sell off any excess permits.

What is the primary way the U.S. is addressing the climate impact of vehicles?

The national CAFE programs.

According to global policy, which country would have to make the largest carbon emissions reductions as of 2020, based on total emissions?

China.

What are some current incentive-based programs for reducing greenhouse gases?

The European Trading Program.

What is microfragmentation?

A technique pioneered by Dr. David Vaughan to significantly accelerate the regeneration of coral reef habitats by breaking healthy coral into small pieces.

What type of approach to limit the effects of climate change is microfragmentation?

Restoration

How can carbon dividends make a carbon tax more politically popular?

They redistribute the revenue directly to citizens, offsetting households' higher energy costs.

What is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)?

The international body for assessing the science related to climate change, providing policymakers around the globe with regular assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation.

What is the goal of Net Zero 2050?

Balancing greenhouse gas emissions with removals to combat climate change.

What is a debt-for-nature swap?

An agreement in which a portion of a developing country’s debt is forgiven in exchange for local investments in conservation.

What is a green bond?

A financial instrument used to raise funds for environmental or climate-related projects.

What is conservation banking?

A mechanism allowing developers to compensate for environmental impacts by purchasing credits from preserved habitats.

What is a biodiversity offset?

A policy tool where ecological damage from development is offset by preserving or restoring habitats elsewhere.

What is the Living Planet Index?

A measure tracking the state of global biological diversity based on population trends in vertebrate species.

What are fund pollutants?

Pollutants that can be assimilated by the environment.

What are stock pollutants?

Pollutants that the environment has no absorptive capacity for.

What are persistent stock pollutants?

Pollutants that accumulate and break down so slowly that they can travel long distances.

What was the purpose of the 1899 Refuse Act?

To prohibit the discharge of refuse into the nation's waterways.

What did the Water Control Act of 1948 initiate?

The authority to conduct investigations and research into water pollution control.

What did the 1956 Amendments to water pollution control provide?

Support for the construction of waste treatment plants and enforcement conferences.

What did the Water Quality Act of 1965 establish?

Quality standards for interstate watercourses.

What is the TMDL Program (total maximum daily load)?

A calculation of the maximum amount of pollutant that a water body can receive and still meet the water quality standards.

What does the Safe Drinking Water Act do?

Sets stricter standards for drinking water.

What is required for trading water pollution control?

Point source polluters meeting water quality standards by purchasing reductions from other sources with lower marginal abatement cost.

What is the problem with uniform national effluent standards?

They do not closely approximate the least-cost allocation.

What is a major problem with the zero-discharge goal?

The feasibility of meeting such a goal is small, thus enforcement is a problem.

What is a consequence of municipal waste treatment subsidies paying capital costs?

This type of program provides incentives to build expensive plants. Local areas need to be more careful with capital costs.

What is a more cost-effective approach to water pollution control compared to technology-based standards?

Economic incentives.

What often hampers water pollution control programs in developing countries?

Noncompliance and lack of infrastructure.

What are some issues contributing to the global water crisis?

Mismanagement and scarcity.

What does underpricing of water lead to?

Overuse, pollution, and degradation.

How can the cycle of poor governance and water crises be broken?

Reform governance and institutions, price water based on scarcity, remove harmful subsidies, and encourage innovation.

What are water markets & trading?

Allocate from low- to high-value users

What are stock pollutants?

Water Pollutants that accumulate and are not broken down by nature

What is nonpoint source pollution?

Runoff from agriculture or urban areas with uncertain origin

What is the Safe Drinking Water Act (1974)?

Set maximum allowable levels for bacteria, turbidity, and chemicals.

What is the TMLD Program?

Allocates total pollution a water body can receive while meeting standards.

What is point source pollution?

Pollution that enters water from specific pipe or location

What are fund pollutants?

Pollutants like heat that can be assimilated by the environment.

What is the biological dimension regarding the fish population (stock) and growth?

Relationship between the fish population (stock) and growth

What occurs when the market is allowed to work in regards to fisheries?

Taxes.

What is bycatch?

Non-targeted species that are unintentionally caught during fishing operations

What are Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)?

Designed zones where fishing is restricted or banned to protect marine life.

What are Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs)?

Privately held rights to a share of the total allowable catch, tradable among fishers.

What is Total Allowable Catch (TAC)?

A cap on the total amount of fish that can be harvested from a fishery annually.

What is aquaculture?

A system for farming fish or shellfish under controlled conditions

How do economists express that approximately 90 percent of the world's fish stocks were either fully exploited or overexploited?

-economic incentives -tragedy of the commons, (demand for seafood) -prioritize profits over conservation - lack of regulation

How many countries (or EEZs) needs to be targeted to improve the fishery management of 90% ofthe world's fish catch, how many people can be fed worldwide with fish catches, and compare fish to other sources of animal protein in terms of dollar costs, land use, water use, carbon footprint, and healthfulness in our diets?

25 countries need to be targeted to improve fishery management of 90% of the world's fish catch. Under current policies, 700 million people can be fed daily worldwide with fish practices, and if sustainable polices are implemented, we could feed up to 1 billion people daily. Comparing fish to other animal proteins, fish require less land use as they are in the ocean or, if need be, in freshwater tanks on land. They are more cost-effective because production costs are less than, say, a cow. Fish use less water than other agricultural products. Overall, fish have a lower carbon footprint, and they're one of the healthiest meat sources because of the omega-3s and lower saturated fats

What is Maximum Sustainable Yield?

Fish population level at which growth is highest, supporting highest possible harvest over time

What is effort?

The input (e.g., time, boats, gear) used to harvest fish

What is Overfishing?

Harvesting beyond the rate of fish population growth

What is Minimum viable population?

The lowest population at which the fish stock can sustain itself

What is Natural equilibrium?

The maximum sustainable population in the absence of human interaction

What is Static economic efficiency?

When marginal cost of effort equals marginal benefit from harvest

What are the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

17 global goals adopted by UN Member States in 2015 that Focus on eradicating poverty, protecting the planet, and ensuring prosperity for all

What is Sustainable Development?

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

What is Weak sustainability?

Natural and man-made capital are substitutable.