Technical progress and pollution abatement: an economic view of selected technologies and practices

2001 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Anderson

The paper first presents evidence from the engineering literature on air and water pollution control, which shows that, when the pollution abatement technologies are in place, large reductions in pollution have been achieved at costs that are small relative to the costs of production. A simulation model is then developed to study the effects of technical progress on pollution abatement, and applied to particular cases in developing countries. The results are compared with the projections of an environmental Kuznets curve: they reproduce the latter if policies were not to be introduced until per capita incomes reached levels comparable to those of the industrial countries when they first introduced their policies; but show dramatically lower and earlier peaks if policies were to be introduced earlier. The conclusion is shown to apply more generally, and it is argued that developing countries can aspire to addressing their environmental problems at a much earlier phase of development than the industrial countries before them.

1993 ◽  
Vol 32 (4I) ◽  
pp. 411-431
Author(s):  
Hans-Rimbert Hemmer

The current rapid population growth in many developing countries is the result of an historical process in the course of which mortality rates have fallen significantly but birthrates have remained constant or fallen only slightly. Whereas, in industrial countries, the drop in mortality rates, triggered by improvements in nutrition and progress in medicine and hygiene, was a reaction to economic development, which ensured that despite the concomitant growth in population no economic difficulties arose (the gross national product (GNP) grew faster than the population so that per capita income (PCI) continued to rise), the drop in mortality rates to be observed in developing countries over the last 60 years has been the result of exogenous influences: to a large degree the developing countries have imported the advances made in industrial countries in the fields of medicine and hygiene. Thus, the drop in mortality rates has not been the product of economic development; rather, it has occurred in isolation from it, thereby leading to a rise in population unaccompanied by economic growth. Growth in GNP has not kept pace with population growth: as a result, per capita income in many developing countries has stagnated or fallen. Mortality rates in developing countries are still higher than those in industrial countries, but the gap is closing appreciably. Ultimately, this gap is not due to differences in medical or hygienic know-how but to economic bottlenecks (e.g. malnutrition, access to health services)


1982 ◽  
Vol 14 (9-11) ◽  
pp. 1337-1352 ◽  
Author(s):  
G G Cillié

An estimated 80 % of all illnesses in developing countries is in one way or another related to water. In order to alleviate this most serious condition, the united Nations has initiated the “International Water Decade”, for which the estimated costs are $600 000 million, a sum which is far beyond any available means. By application of “low-cost technology” this sum could be reduced to $100 000 million which brings the objective within the reach of possibility. Details are given of the design and methods of construction of units which are best suited to the specific requirements and which would be simple, reliable and economical to operate. These can be constructed largely from local materials and by local labour. The need for appropriate training of both operators and the user population is stressed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1228
Author(s):  
Javier Arnaut ◽  
Johanna Lidman

The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis assumes there is an inverted U-shape relationship between pollution and income per capita, implying an improvement in environmental quality when a growing economy reaches a high level of economic development. This study evaluated empirically the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve in Greenland for the period 1970–2018. Using an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach, the results show evidence of a U-shaped EKC in Greenland instead of the hypothesized inverted U-shape. The findings indicate that Greenland had initially experienced a decoupling transition during an early development stage associated with structural conditions of a small subsistence economy. However, once the country began to expand its industry, the trend began to reverse, creating a positive and significant relationship between CO2 emissions and GDP per capita that is potentially detrimental to the Arctic natural environment.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 3956 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada ◽  
Wilhelm Loewenstein

The present inquiry addresses the income-environment relationship in oil-producing countries and scrutinizes the further drivers of atmospheric pollution in the respective settings. The existing literature that tests the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis within the framework of the black-box approaches provides only a bird’s-eye perspective on the long-run income-environment relationship. The aspiration behind this study is making the first step toward the disentanglement of the sources of carbon dioxide emissions, which could be employed in the pollution mitigation policies of this group of countries. Based on the combination of two strands of literature, the environmental Kuznets curve conjecture and the resource curse, the paper at hand proposes an augmented theoretical framework of this inquiry. To approach the research questions empirically, the study employs advanced panel cointegration techniques. To avoid econometric misspecification, the study also employs for the first time a nonparametric time-varying coefficient panel data estimator with fixed effects (NPFE) for the dataset of 37 oil-producing countries in the time interval spanning between 1989 and 2019. The empirical analysis identifies the level of per capita income, the magnitude of oil rents, the share of fossil fuel-based electricity generation in the energy mix, and the share of the manufacturing sector in GDP as essential drivers of carbon dioxide emissions in the oil-rich countries. Tertiarization, on the contrary, leads to a substantial reduction of emissions. Another striking result of this study is that level of political rights and civil liberties are negatively associated with per capita carbon emissions in this group of countries. Furthermore, the study decisively rejects an inverted U-shaped income-emission relationship and validates the monotonically or exponentially increasing impact of average income on carbon dioxide emissions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suleyman Yurtkuran

Abstract This study aims to investigate the dynamic relationship between income, clean energy consumption, exports, imports, urbanization and ecological footprint for Turkey from 1973 to 2015 using the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis. The long-term coefficients derived from the ARDL approach demonstrate that import increase the ecological footprint, whereas urbanization and clean energy consumption do not have an impact on environmental pollution in the long-term. In addition, the 2001 dummy variable is negative and statistically significant. The crisis in 2001 slowed down the economic growth rate. This situation also caused reduction of environmental pollution. Moreover, the long run estimates indicate that the EKC hypothesis is valid in Turkey. However, the turning point of per capita income was calculated as $16,045 that outside of the analyzed period. As economic activities increase, human pressure on nature continues to increase. Consequently, the only factor that reduces the ecological footprint has been determined as exports. In contrast, economic growth and clean energy consumption cannot be used as a tool to reduce the ecological footprint. Turkey needs a higher level of per capita income than the threshold level to improve environmental quality.


Author(s):  
Junran Ma

With the development of economy, environmental problems gradually outstanding in China. This article adopts the method of empirical study, have collected the data of China's industrial added value, per capita GDP and emissions of the three major pollutants from 2004 to 2015. The VAR model was established on the basis of the logarithm values of the three factors mentioned above, so as to conduct impulse- response analysis to discuss the relationship between industrialization level, economic development and environmental pollution. The conclusion is as follows: (1) At present, the increase of China's industrial added value can promote the decline of China's environmental pollution emissions to a certain extent; (2) China is now at the left of the turning point of the Environmental Kuznets Curve, and the increase of per capita GDP will aggravate environmental pollution.


2013 ◽  
Vol 807-809 ◽  
pp. 773-782
Author(s):  
Qing Song Li ◽  
Kai Kang ◽  
Jia Wei Zhu ◽  
Qing Xiang Meng ◽  
Su Jun Deng

The study set up the model of per capita GDP and the environmental index based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) with the support of SPSS software and the 2003-2011 economics and environment data of Puyang City. And the result shows that the environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) of industrial wastewater discharge and industrial sulfur dioxide emissions both display inverted U-shape; and just across the turning point, the discharge present downward trend with the increasing of per capita GDP; while the EKC of industrial fumes emissions display positive U-shape, and its emission present upward trend first and then downward with the increasing of per capita GDP. It shows that the environmental problems of Puyang City has partly improved, but has not been fully restrained. The main reasons are unreasonable industrial structure, single dominated industy and relatively low investment on environmental improvement.


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