Message-ID: <852566D6.006AB112.67@WBLN0014.worldbank.org> Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 14:23:11 -0500 From: mailto:Dshaman@WORLDBANK.ORG Subject: NIPR newsletter, December 1998 To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
1 - New NIPR research paper, "Small Plants, Pollution and Poverty: New Evidence from Brazil and Mexico" 2 - Philippines' Environment Department updates ECOWATCH, its Public Information Disclosure program 3 - The World Bank's official report for the Guadalajara (Mexico) Environmental Management Pilot 4 - "Market Based Instruments for Environmental Policymaking in Latin America and the Caribbean: Lessons from Eleven Countries", a World Bank report 5 - "Baseline for Greenhouse Gas Reductions: Problems, Precedents, Solutions" research paper 6 - New Links from the OnTheNet page 7 - "Trade Liberalisation and the Environment: The Case of the Uruguay Round" abstractDear Friends:
We very much appreciate your continued interest in the New Ideas in Pollution Regulation -- (http://www.worldbank.org/nipr) -- website. We have a number of new offerings for our year ending update. Some touch on ongoing research themes by the NIPR team such as the power of making information public to influence environmental behavior, and the ability of economic instruments to work in developing country settings. Some break new ground such as the Guadalajara project where large firms mentored small firms to help develop environmental management systems. All we find interesting. We hope you agree.
1 - New NIPR research paper, "Small Plants, Pollution and Poverty: New Evidence from Brazil and Mexico"
Pollution from small enterprises is a source of controversy and debate amongst policymakers working on environment and development. Some argue emissions from large factories clearly pose the most significant threat to environmental quality. Others note small plants are more highly pollution intensive, costly to regulate, and in the aggregate more environmentally harmful than larger firms. Among the questions researchers Susmita Dasgupta, Robert E.B. Lucas, and David Wheeler explore: are small plants more pollution intensive than large facilities?; is industry less pollution intensive in higher income areas?; is the share of small plants lower in higher income areas?; and do poor areas suffer more from industrial pollution in total from small plants or large ones? The authors conduct their analysis from sizeable databases on Brazilian and Mexican industries, and believe this paper attempts the first systematic assessment of the relationships linking economic development, the distribution of plant sizes and industrial pollution.
http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/work_paper/index.htm
2 - Philippines' Environment Department updates ECOWATCH, its Public Information Disclosure program
This past April the Philippines Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) officially announced its first public ratings as part of its Industrial ECOWATCH program. ECOWATCH, a program of rating environmental performance by manufacturers and informing the public of those ratings, is modeled after PROPER, the Indonesian information disclosure program. The initial DENR announcement earlier this year disclosed the names of twenty six (26) firms that had complied with existing environmental regulations. DENR has just released its second round of ratings. Listed are the names, addresses, and product lines of nineteen (19) companies with ratings of subpar performance or non-compliance. Included in NIPR's update is Undersecretary Elmer Mercado's announcement, DENR's press release, DENR's list of rated companies, and its statistics comparing firm performance between ECOWATCH's original program implementation in 1997 and today.
http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/comrole.htm#ecowatch
3 - The World Bank's official report for the Guadalajara (Mexico) Environmental Management Pilot
Prepared for Mexico's environmental agency, El Secretaria de Medio Ambient, Recursos Naturales y Pesca(SEMARNAP), this Bank report describes the preliminary results of a two-year pilot to learn about and implement environment management systems (EMS) in small and medium-size enterprises. The pilot was initiated through a voluntary agreement signed between eleven Mexican and multinational companies in Guadalajara and SEMARNAP, in which the companies agreed to mentor some of their smaller suppliers as they implemented EMS's. The Bank and the large companies provided funding for the smaller enterprises for EMS implementation, training and support. 22 small companies participated in the pilot at one stage or another. The pilot sought to increase knowledge in several key areas. These include: whether implementation of the ISO 14001 EMS model is appropriate for small enterprises?; are coalitions of government agencies, large companies and universities effective mechanisms for promoting EMS's among small facilities?; do EMS's improve environmental performance in small companies?; can an EMS initiated through such a pilot project be sustained? Some findings from the pilot's initial phase indicate EMS's can significantly improve environmental performance for small firms, mentoring by larger firms was crucial in achieving participation by smaller companies, and ongoing consulting for small plants played an equally vital role. The report also provides a framework for replicating the program on a larger scale.
http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/work_paper/guada/index.htm
4 - "Market Based Instruments for Environmental Policymaking in Latin America and the Caribbean: Lessons from Eleven Countries", a World Bank report
In their paper on the use of Market Based Instruments (MBI's) in Latin America and the Caribbean, Bank staffers Richard Huber, Jack Ruitenbeek, and Renaldo Seroa da Motta charecterize their review as "a work in progress". The paper summarizes a series of country studies addressing the use of MBI's and command-and-control (CAC) measures for environmental management in the region. In reviewing the experiences, successes and difficulties of implementation, the authors conclude MBI's can improve environmental management, rationalize markets, reduce social costs and increase institutional revenues. Additionally, they provide a series of recommendations to enhance effective implementation such as graduality through the introduction of pilot projects, tailoring programs to local needs through broad and open stakeholder participation, keeping the original legislation flexible enough to allow for low-cost administrative revisions and adjustments, and avoidance of high transaction and collection costs.
http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/work_paper/huber/sum-eng.htm
5 - "Baseline for Greenhouse Gas Reductions: Problems, Precedents, Solutions" research paper
The Kyoto Protocal sets limits on developed countries' greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but permits them to meet these limits in part by acquiring offsetting emissions reductions (popularly known as carbon offsets) from other countries. In principle, trade in offsets could greatly reduce the developed world's costs of complying with the emissions limits imposed by the Protocol, and could be a significant source of revenue for developing countries. To make this system work, an accurate, credible, affordable system for setting baselines is needed: the hypothetical 'business-as-usual' level of GHG emissions against which offsets are calculated. An overly lax system may not restrain the incentive to overstate baseline emissions. Too strict a system might choke off the market. In this paper, Chomitz discusses methodological and institutional issues associated with baseline calculation, reviews existing analogs, and proposes some solutions.
http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/work_paper/base14/index.htm
6 - New Links from the OnTheNet page
NIPR's OnTheNet page of links to website on environmental economics, industrial pollution and related datasets and informational resources has been updated again. The following are examples of some of the new selections available. Sustainable Development/Economics, already featured on OnTheNet, recently made available an extensive bibliography for a variety of issues. Foundazione Eni Enrico Mattei is a leading Italian research foundation on environment and public policy. The U.S. EPA, among the numerous listings on NIPR's link page, has two additional sites of note. The Center for Environmental Information and Statistics helps the public access environmental data on communities where they live. The Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards AIRNOW provides daily regional updates on air pollution and how to protect yourself against its effects.
http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/onthenet.htm
7 - "Trade Liberalisation and the Environment: The Case of the Uruguay Round" abstract
In their paper on "Trade Liberalisation and the Environment: The Case of the Uruguay R, M.A. Cole et al. estimate the pollution and monetary impacts of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations. Using the Industrial Pollution Projection System (IPPS), developed by the NIPR team, as part of their methodology, the authors' analysis indicates developing and transition regions will generally experience an increase major air pollutants. The abstract is available on NIPR, while the full paper is available through our link to Blackwell Publishers, publishers ofThe World Economy.
http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/work_paper/cole.htm
We appreciate receiving comments and suggestions from our readers and hope you will continue to keep us informed of new materials, trends and ideas. If you would like to be added or removed from this mailing list, please send a note to David Shaman at mailto:dshaman@worldbank.org. Best wishes for a safe and healthy holiday season.