WP 9: Socio-economic and policy analyses

Targets     Lead Contractor     Lead Partners    

Task 9.1     Task 9.2    

Targets

Socio-economic and policy analysis of measures to mitigate environmental impacts of air pollution on European remote mountain lakes will be based on two themes:

1. policies designed to regulate pollution streams

2. the formation of preferences and values for mountain lakes that is needed to inform management options

Task 9.1.: Policy and institutional environments

We will focus on the effectiveness of policies that are based on ecological standards for managing the water quality of remote lakes. Remote mountain lake environments represent the pivot points of the current policy system, as they are the most difficult environments for the attainment of ecological standards. This has led to the adoption of policies for the avoidance of these standards by means of truncation, aggregation and gap allowance).

As "ecological benefits" (or non-attainment costs) have never been considered in the assessment of the optimal regulation of emissions within Europe, a case study on the impact of the inclusion of such ecological benefits will be undertaken. We will use the UNECE Second Sulphur Protocol's regulation of the impacts of sulphur emissions on high mountain lake environments to validate "the critical loads standard" in relation to its cost effectiveness in maintaining and restoring high mountain lake systems. Results from the benefits assessment exercise will be incorporated within the study to determine the costs of deviating from critical loads standards. This case study on sulphur will be extended to other pollutants to assess the European attitude toward the role of ecological standards in the regulation of the environment in general and of remote mountain lake environments in particular.

Task 9.2.: Socio-economic, cultural, spatial and related issues

To recognise adequately the individual, social and institutional forces surrounding the diverse environmental issues related to air pollution in general and its impact on mountain lakes in particular, we need to understand the way in which perceptions and values are formed. For example, perceptions of natural resources vary substantially across different areas, depending on socio-economic and cultural differences and on where individuals live in relation to the natural environment and their consequent knowledge of the resource. However, in assessing people's use-values for the goods and services provided by the environment we cannot use market prices, as would be the case for tradeable commodities, and, by definition, remote mountain lakes are valued for their continued existence quite separately from any direct use. This is defined as "non-use value", the estimation of which has led to the development of a range of environmental preference valuation methods.

Consequently we will investigate each of the social, economic, cultural and spatial impacts on preferences and values by survey sampling across three different regions:

1. the East Anglian plain of South-east England

2. the Highlands of Scotland

3. a range of upland and lowland Norwegian locations

Lead Contractor

1. CSERGE-UEA - Centre for Social & Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE), University of East Anglia, UK

Lead Partners

1. CSERGE-UCL - Centre for Social & Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE), University College London, UK