Environmental Economics
The Department of Economics and International Development at the University of Bath has a strong international reputation in Environmental Economics and related research.
Environmental Economics involves the use of economic methods in the evaluation of environmental issues, including natural resource exploitation. Issues such as the definition of subsidies for renewable energy, “getting the prices right” in the setting of environmental taxes, the efficient use of natural resources and the establishment of an effective regime for climate change mitigation are all key issues that have interested researchers in Bath.
Key Staff
- Professor Anil Markandya
- Dr Adrian Winnett– Senior Lecturer
- Dr Lucy O’Shea– Lecturer
- Mr Alistair Hunt – Research Officer
- Mr Tim Taylor– Research Officer
- Mr Nick Dale – Research Officer
- Mr Richard Boyd – Research Officer
- Dr Ramon Ortiz – Research Officer
- Steven Arnold - Research Officer
- Mr Harry Walton – Experimental Officer
- Dr Jack Pezzey – Visiting Fellow (ANU)
The Department has a number of research students working on areas of environmental economics and sustainable development. Current students include:
-
Sabah Abdullah – Sustainable Energy in Kenya
- Dekun Zhan – International Environmental Agreements
Recent completed PhDs have included:
- Ramon Ortiz – Valuation of environmental impacts on health in Brazil
- Alina Averchenkova – Factors of Effectiveness of the International Climate Change Regime
- Claire Johnstone – An Ecological and Economic Approach to Valuing River Water Quality
Key areas of interest
- Green accounting
- Valuation of environmental and health damages
- Natural resources
- Sustainable agriculture
- Climate change
GREEN ACCOUNTING
The University of Bath has been at the forefront of efforts within Europe to integrate environmental issues into standard national accounts of the environment. Key staff who have worked in this area are Anil Markandya, Alistair Hunt, Nick Dale and Tim Taylor.
Recent projects for the European Commission have included the Greensense project, where standard welfare-based green accounting techniques were linked with work on sustainability standards to allow for a better inclusion of sustainability issues within decisionmaking. This built on work in the Green Accounting Research Projects (GARP, GARPII), which developed welfare-based measures of environmental degradation that could be integrated in satellite accounts.
The ongoing SENSOR project will aim to build on the GREENSENSE project to develop measures of the external costs of rural land use in Europe.
Publications
- Markandya, A. and Pavan, M. (eds) Green Accounting in Europe: Four Case Studies, Kluwer Academic Press.
- Markandya, A., Hunt, A. and Mason, P. (2000) Valuing Damages for Green Accounting Purposes: the GARPII approach FEEM Nota di Lavoro 93.2000, Milan. (Available in pdf from www.feem.it)
- Markandya, A. and Tamborra, M. (2005), Green Accounting in Europe: Volume 2. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.
- Markandya, A, Mason, P., Hunt, A.and Dale, N.(eds) Greensense book, in preparation.
VALUATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH DAMAGES
In addition to the work on green accounting, the University of Bath has been working on extending the knowledge base in terms of the valuation of environmental and health damages. Damages from energy and transport have been a particular area of focus, with the University of Bath being a key player in the ExternE series of projects for the European Commission.
Recent work has focussed on valuing changes in mortality risk (NewExt). Ongoing work looks at issues of energy security and cultural heritage (ExternEPol) and more general issues related to health valuation (DIEM).
As part of the European Commission’s Framework Programme 6, the University of Bath are involved in a number of projects that value damages to the environment. These include the following:
- THRESHOLDS – valuation of marine ecosystem threshold effects from nutrient pollution. Choice experiments of algal bloom in Bulgaria, Mallorca and Belgium. Case studies in a range of marine systems.
- METHODEX – valuation of externalities from industry, particularly waste and water sectors.
- HEATCO – valuation of externalities from transport.
- SENSOR – valuation of multifunctional land-use
- CASES – valuation of energy externalities (especially energy)
- NEEDS – valuation of health impacts (cost per QALY, meta-analysis)
Publications
- Hunt, A, and Markandya, A.: Contributors to Chapter 4 of "Energy, Sustainable Development and Health" WHO (forthcoming)
- ExternE series
NATURAL RESOURCES
Work on natural resource issues has been led by Adrian Winnett and Anil Markandya. The estimation of estimates of natural capital has been a key area of interest.
The SAUNER project looks at the sustainable use of natural resources. The aim of the project was to apply the economic theories of efficient and sustainable resource depletion to predicted patterns of natural resource depletion and investment in substitutes, in order to form a judgement as to whether or not these patterns are likely to be economically sustainable.
Publications - to follow
SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
Sustainable agriculture is an area of increasing interest in academic circles, with the GM food debate and issues relating to sustainable rural development raising the profile of this issue nationally. Lucy O’Shea, Anil Markandya and Tim Taylor have worked on issues relating to sustainable agriculture.
In one recent project, the potential impact of nitrate fertilizer tax was analysed.
Another project, SUSTOOLS aimed to develop cost-benefit analysis and multicriteria analysis for policy options for nitrate fertilizer use. The University of Bath was involved in the estimation of costs and benefits of different policy options, including the use of manure and more stringent standards on the application of fertilizers.
Tim Taylor is working on the EC FP6 project SENSOR (www.sensor-ip.org). SENSOR aims to develop a sustainability impact assessment tool for assessing multifunctional land use in Europe. As part of this, an assessment of the external costs of agriculture will be made.
Publications
- O’Shea, L. (2002), An economic approach to reducing water pollution: point and diffuse sources', The Science of the Total Environment, 282 - 283, pp. 49 - 63.
- O’Shea, L. and Ulph, A.(2002), Biodiversity and optimal policies towards R&D and the growth of genetically modified crops, Environmental and Resource Economics, 22, 505-520.
- O’Shea, L. and Ulph, A. (2002), Providing the correct incentives for genetic modification in Swanson, T. (ed.) The Economics of Managing Biotechnologies.
- O’Shea, L., Wade, A. J. and Whitehead, P. G. (2002), The prediction and management of aquatic nitrogen pollution across Europe: An introduction to the Integrated Nitrogen in European Catchments project (INCA), Hydrology and Earth Systems Science 6(3), 299-313.
- Von Blottnitz, H., Rabl, A., Boiadjiev, D., Arnold, S. and Taylor, T. (2006), Damage Costs of Nitrogen Fertilizer in Europe and their internalisation Journal of Environmental Planning and Management.Vol 49, No 3, pp 413-433.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate change is a major issue in world affairs and a major threat to sustainable development. Anil Markandya, Tim Taylor and Alistair Hunt have been involved in work in this area.
Anil Markandya is involved in activities organised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and was a coordinating lead author of the Costing Methodologies chapter of Climate Change 2001:Mitigation. Tim Taylor was a contributing author to this chapter.
Alistair Hunt and Tim Taylor have also been involved in work on the Kyoto Protocol, looking at issues relating to trade and the implementation of the flexibility mechanisms.
The main research work has focussed on the costing of climate change impacts, adaptation and mitigation options.
Publications
- Contributions to IPCC(2001) Climate Change 2001:Mitigation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
- Eckermann, F., Stronzik, M., Hunt, A. and Taylor, T. (2004), Risk and Transactions Costs in Bohringer (ed) Climate Change and Global Trade, Kluwer.
- Halsnaes, K., Markandya, A. and Taylor, T. (2002), Case Studies for Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mauritius and Thailand in Markandya and Halsnaes (eds) Climate Change and Sustainable Development, Earthscan.
- Markandya, A. and Halsnaes, K. (2002), Climate Change and Sustainable Development. Earthscan, London.
- Michaelowa, A., Hunt, A., Stronzik, M., and Eckermann, F. (2003), Transaction costs of the Kyoto Mechanisms. Climate Policy, p261-278 .
- Taylor, T., Hunt, A. and Markandya, A. (2004), Trade and Multilateral Environmental Agreementsin Winnett, A., (ed) Towards an Environmental Research Agenda: Volume 3. Palgrave Macmillan.
- Taylor, T., Hunt, A. and Markandya, A. (2004), Multilateral Environmental Agreements and the Trade and Environment Nexus in Bohringer (ed) Climate Change and Global Trade, Kluwer.
- Taylor, T. (2002), Integrating Equity into analysis of Climate Change Mitigation Projects in Markandya and Halsnaes (eds) Climate Change and Sustainable Development, Earthscan.