Environmental Regulations, Abatement and Economic Growth
Due to recent global discussions about climate change and its possible consequences, the implementation of environmental policy instruments with the intent to counteract the current environmental developments has become increasingly important. Environment
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1 Introduction In recent years climate change and the possible consequences that human society might have to deal with, if further global warming cannot be stopped, have become one of the most important topics in science, politics and the world wide media. The scientific evidence that many key climate indicators are already moving beyond the patterns of natural variability defines this dramatic change as a world wide concern. Hence, the importance of climate mitigation has become undeniable. These indicators, including global mean surface temperature, global ocean temperature, global average sea level, northern hemisphere snow cover and Arctic sea ice decline as well as extreme climatic events, additionally come along with the risk of abrupt or irreversible climatic shifts, which might have devastating consequences for the entire world population. This underlines how urgent the need of climate actions has become (see Richardson et al. 2009). In the 4th Assessment Report by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2007), scientific evidence on global warming, its damages and the importance of climate mitigation as well as the reduction of anthropogenic greenhouse E. Moser (B) · A. Prskawetz Wittgenstein Centre (IIASA, VID/ÖAW, WU), VID/ÖAW, Wohllebengasse 12-14, Vienna 1040, Austria e-mail: [email protected] A. Prskawetz Research Group Economics, Institute of Mathematical Methods in Economics, Vienna University of Technology, Argentinierstrasse 8, Vienna 1040, Austria e-mail: [email protected] G. Tragler Research Group ORCOS, Institute of Mathematical Methods in Economics, Vienna University of Technology, Argentinierstrasse 8, Vienna 1040, Austria e-mail: [email protected] J. Crespo Cuaresma et al. (eds.), Green Growth and Sustainable Development, Dynamic Modeling and Econometrics in Economics and Finance 14, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-34354-4_5, © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
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gas (GHG) emissions are highlighted. According to their Synthesis Report, the industry sector, besides the energy supply and transport sectors, is one of the main sources of anthropogenic GHG emissions accounting for almost 20% of all GHG emissions (2004). The majority are CO2 emissions due to the use of fossil fuels, but also the emissions of other gases like PFCs, SF6 , CH4 and N2 O due to physical and chemical processes contribute to the overall CO2 emissions. Additionally, one has to consider the impact of industrial waste and wastewater on pollution. Further on, not only the sources are discussed in the IPCC (2007) but also a broad range of mitigation policy measures are suggested, which especially emphasizes the role of technology policies and the increasing need for more R&D efforts. In the Mitigation of Climate Change Report, some possible mitigation options for a greener technology are explained, such as fuel switching, including the use of waste material, advanced energy efficiency, the use of bioenergy and material recycling and substitution. As far as according policy instrum
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