Transboundary Watershed Pollution Control and Product Market Competition With Ecological Compensation and Emission Tax: A Dynamic Analysis

Product competition and pollution control are closely related to watershed environmental management, but existing literature rarely investigates them in an identical framework. Therefore, this paper develops a multiple differential game model to analyze product market competition and ecological compensation games between watershed regions based on the assumption that a region can choose four strategies to regulate its manufacturers while cooperating with other regions in the basin. Then, solve the model and obtain a simultaneous equilibrium between the governments and manufacturers for the first time. The results show that: the combination of emissions tax and ecological compensation results in the highest social welfare and water ecology for all regions in a basin. Furthermore, the ecological compensation rate independent of emissions tax policy and ecological compensation does not shift investment from downstream to upstream, but it can induce the upstream region to increase investment in management. In addition, if the governments impose an emissions tax, manufacturers' output in both regions decreases, and the upstream region is higher than in the downstream region.

Farm-Level Effects of Emissions Tax and Adjustable Drainage on Peatlands

Drained agricultural peatlands emit significantly higher amounts of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per hectare than mineral soils. GHG abatement costs for representative cereals (CF) and dairy (DF) farms in southwestern Finland were estimated by integrating an emission-based tax together with an option to invest in a subsidized adjustable drainage system on peat soils in a farm-level dynamic optimization model. With an average 10% share of peat soils from overall farm area, emissions tax rates over 15 (CF) and 19 (DF) €/tCO2e triggered adjustable drainage investments with a significant reduction in GHG emissions per ha, when assuming no crop-yield effect from the adjustable drainage. Abatement costs for emissions tax rates €12–50/tCO2e/ha were €16–44/tCO2e (CF) and €26–51/tCO2e (DF) for whole farm-soil emissions, depending on the share of peatlands on the farm, on the yield effects of adjustable drainage, and on crop prices. High emissions tax rates imply higher abatement costs since farms have a limited capability to adjust their production and land use. Thus, emissions reductions from peatlands can be achieved at reasonable costs when investing in adjustable drainage on peatlands. The income losses due to emissions tax, however, are high, but they can be compensated for farmers by lumpsum payments independent of their production decisions. Since existing agricultural policies such as the EU CAP system may have limited effectiveness on GHG emissions, the emissions tax and adjustable drainage on peatlands could promote GHG abatement significantly on farms and areas with abundant peatlands.

‘Green’ managerial delegation theory

This article develops a non-cooperative game with managerial quantity-setting firms in which owners choose whether to delegate output and abatement decisions to managers through a contract based on emissions (conventionally denoted as ‘green’ delegation, GD) instead of sales (sales delegation, SD), and the government levies an emissions tax to incentivise firms’ emissions-reduction actions. First, it compares the Nash equilibrium outcomes between GD and SD and then contrasts them also with profit maximisation (PM). A plethora of Nash equilibria emerges, especially in the case GD versus PM (the ‘green delegation game’), depending on the public awareness toward environmental quality, ranging from the coordination game to the ‘green’ prisoner's dilemma. Second, though the contract under GD incentivises managers for emissions, the environmental damage is lower than under SD. This is because the optimal tax more than compensates the incentive for emissions. These findings suggest that designing GD contracts paradoxically favours environmental quality.

Determining the effect of air transportation on air pollution in the most polluted city in Turkey

Purpose This study was carried out in Igdir, where Turkey’s urban air pollution is at the highest level, and the population is among the smallest. Thus, the study aims to determine the effect of air transportation on air pollution in the most polluted city in Turkey. Design/methodology/approach The approach includes six stages: choosing the airport, accessing the flight information for the airport, classifying the aircraft that operated at the airport, determining the aircraft engines, calculating the emission amounts, calculating the landing and takeoff-based emissions. Findings Rather than devoting the resources disproportionally to the aviation sector within the scope of economic globalization, as a policy recommendation, to realize its production potential, Igdir, which has a great agricultural production capacity, considering its microclimate, fertile soil and arable land, should be urgently integrated into neighboring markets and the national market via railways. Practical implications It is inferred from the research that Turkey has to consider implementing the emissions tax policy, while the Turkish aviation sector is to realize new regulations for aircraft-engine matching to take public health and the impacts of the airports on their surroundings into consideration more seriously. Originality/value This study is an original one, as it puts the increasing pollution caused by the aircraft into a historical and political-economic perspective. Also, it is an example of an interdisciplinary work that combines environmental science and political science.

Carbon tax to lower emissions: the likely impact of carbon emissions tax on households in South Africa

The South African government, along with other countries, has signed the Paris Agreement to commit to lowering carbon dioxide emissions. This has led to the introduction of carbon tax in different countries to combat global warming. The Mexican government was the first to introduce carbon tax amongst the emerging economies back in 2014, while the Argentine government implemented carbon tax in January 2018. The South African government followed suite and introduced carbon tax effective 5 June 2019. Households are expected, however, to be weighed down by the levy as the carbon fuel levy will be implemented at 9 and 10 cents per litre on petrol and diesel respectively. The impact on strained households’ income is expected to emanate from the already high fuel prices, which have been on a rising trajectory since the beginning of 2019.

Discussions on PV power Parity

China is the biggest coal country. However, China's power industry relies heavily on fossil energy, which seriously threatens China's energy security. It is unreasonable to use the current coal power price as a benchmark for parity. At present coal power price has not accounted for various emissions tax and the resource tax. so authentic parity must be fully included in resource costs and environmental costs. Fair pricing is the primary prerequisite for parity. Nowadays the biggest obstacle for the PV industry today is not technology, but the unreasonable price mechanism. The explore of photovoltaic electricity price as the benchmark electricity price can accelerate the development of the photovoltaic industry, can accelerate the green revolution of energy production, can also accelerate the construction of ecological civilization. Therefore, it is imperative to adopt PV power prices as a benchmark for parity in China as soon as possible.