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This paper establishes a causal relation between households' decision of asset allocation and environmental pollution based on urban PM2.5 concentration data and a nationally representative survey in China. We find a significantly negative effect of environmental pollution on households' demand for housing assets but an inverted U-shaped effect on the demand for risky assets. The effects are remarkably robust to correcting the endogenous issue and a battery of robustness checks. Social interaction can partly explain such an effect of pollution. Furthermore, we also find that because households with lower economic status are at greater risk of exposure to environmental pollution and lack of economic capabilities, their holdings of financial assets decrease more than that of the households with higher economic status when faced with pollution; however, their holdings of low liquid assets declining less. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Increasing fresh gas flow (FGF) to a circle breathing system reduces carbon dioxide (CO2) absorbent consumption. We assessed the environmental and economic impacts of this trade-off between gas flow and absorbent consumption when no inhalational anaesthetic agent is used.Methods: A test lung with fixed CO2 inflow was ventilated via a circle breathing system of an anaesthetic machine (Dräger Primus or GE Aisys CS2) using an FGF of 1, 2, 4, or 6 L min-1. We recorded the time to exhaustion of the CO2 absorbent canister, defined as when inspired partial pressure of CO2 exceeded 0.3 kPa. For each FGF, we calculated the economic costs and the environmental impact associated with the manufacture of the CO2 absorbent canister and the supply of medical air and oxygen. Environmental impact was measured in 100 yr global-warming potential, analysed using a life cycle assessment 'cradle to grave' approach.Results: Increasing FGF from 1 to 6 L min-1 was associated with up to 93% reduction in the combined running cost with minimal net change to the 100 yr global-warming potential. Most of the reduction in cost occurred between 4 and 6 L min-1. Removing the CO2 absorbent from the circle system, and further increasing FGF to control CO2 rebreathing, afforded minimal further economic benefit, but more than doubled the global-warming potential.Conclusions: In the absence of inhalational anaesthetic agents, increasing FGF to 6 L min-1 reduces running cost compared with lower FGFs, with minimal impact to the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the strategic options available to companies reacting to the market-oriented conditions that address global warming and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). In addition to political and regulatory activities, there are market changes affecting corporations, global warming and emissions reduction such as emissions trading that create an atmosphere of corporate uncertainty. The United States continues to oppose the Kyoto Protocol's global emission reduction approach, instead advocating the exploration of specific technological options. The article discusses current climate change policies such as emissions trading, Joint Implementation and the Clean Development Mechanism that allow companies to achieve GHG reduction by interacting with other parties, and explores how managers can choose between innovative strategies that improve a company's assets and competitive position as the result of the new environmental technologies.

Currently a new vector for the development of the world economy is being crystallized. An impetus for growth has been provided by accelerated competition, global economic crises, climate changes on the globe. Between the desire for economic growth and its consequences lie ecological contradictions. Ecology has struggled with the desire for economic development as well as with political, social and cultural issues. The consequences of the contradictions are highlighted by the establishment of environment-oriented international economic policies and instruments, by implementation of legislative support, by financial investments in ecological and innovation projects in the field. Every country should take into account orientation of development vector, applying predominantly economic incentives to sustainable economic development. The use of previous measures and policies have not convinced all states and have not led to positive consequences. The measures applied are not enough to change cardinal environmental protection activity. Solving contradictions, economic and environmental issues will solve the problem of resources, improve the living environment, will provide economic advantages in the competitive struggle. The purpose of the present investigation is to research the contradiction between world economy development and ways to overcome environmental pollution. The results of the research have shown some ways in which the contradictions between economic growth and the environment condition could be overcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interaction of environmental pollution between peripheral areas has become a central topic in the field of resources and environment but little is known about the actual impact on peripheral areas in the current literature. This paper sets out a simultaneous equation model to investigate the spillover effect of environmental pollution between China's peripheral areas utilizing the panel data of 218 cities in China. Making use of indicators for measuring the impact on environmental pollution, it identifies that environmental pollution between cities of China has a significant two-way spillover effect. After standardization of variables, it is found that the spillover effect of peripheral areas on urban environmental pollution cannot be neglected. Nearly, a third of the environmental pollution level in a city is induced by the environmental pollution in peripheral areas. If the indicator of environmental pollution in peripheral areas is missing, wrong conclusions will be drawn. Therefore, government should shift the emphasis of environmental regulation from local to global, and improve the overall environmental quality through coordinated management of regional environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's economic miracle has been achieved at considerable environmental cost. To fight against environmental pollution more effectively, the Chinese government established the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) in 2008. This study investigates the stock market reaction to this event and finds that, on average, listed firms in polluting industries experienced a statistically and economically significant negative abnormal return on the event date, which implies that the compliance costs of these polluting firms are expected to increase. In addition, this study finds that enterprises with different ownership styles and different political influence experienced different price reactions during the event window. More specifically, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in general experienced a less negative abnormal return over different event windows, and provincial SOEs perform much better than central SOEs and sub-provincial SOEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental pollution has consistently been a serious obstacle to the sustainable development of China’s national economy. The proposed third-party governance mode for environmental pollution is suitable for China’s development and could fundamentally solve pollution problems. The construction of the legal system of third-party governance is the primary prerequisite for determining the relationship between relevant government departments and enterprises discharging and managing pollution and for upgrading market and competitive mechanisms. Taking Hebei Province as an example, this study analyses the design and implementation of legal systems adopted by developed countries to prevent environmental pollution, and concludes pollution regularity in recent years. The study also summarizes the main modes of the third-party legal system for environmental pollution governance and proposes relevant suggestions. Results show that third-party governance can improve the effect of environmental pollution control under the market mechanism. The unreasonable industrial structure and extensive economic growth in Hebei Province lead to increased fluctuations in wastewater emissions and industrial solid waste, and the main pollutants in industrial exhaust emissions are relatively large in number. Moreover, entrusted governance, trust operation, and public-private partnership are the major modes of the third-party governance’s legal system. The study’s results are of considerable importance in clarifying different subject responsibilities of third-party environmental pollution governance and in upgrading its market and competitive mechanisms. The results also provide a valuable reference to the perfection of an assessment system to the governance effect and the establishment of public participation and legal systems of third-party governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The grassroots movement that placed environmental justice issues on the national stage around 1980 was soon followed up by research documenting the correlation between pollution and race and poverty. This work has established inequitable exposure to nuisances as a stylized fact of social science. In this paper, we review the environmental justice literature, especially where it intersects with work by economists. First we consider the literature documenting evidence of disproportionate exposure. We particularly consider the implications of modeling choices about spatial relationships between polluters and residents, and about conditioning variables. Next, we evaluate the theory and evidence for four possible mechanisms that may lie behind the patterns seen: disproportionate siting on the firm side, "coming to the nuisance" on the household side, market-like coordination of the two, and discriminatory politics and/or enforcement. We argue that further research is needed to understand how much weight to give each mechanism. Finally, we discuss some policy options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the significance of the pollution disclosure requirements of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in corporate financial statements. The lack of enthusiasm among the management of most firms for disclosing information related to pollution is noted, in the context of evolving cultural expectations about the social responsibility of business. The economic rationale behind the requirement for disclosure is addressed. The impact of pollution-related expenditures on the earnings performance of firms and the reaction of investors to these disclosures are also discussed.

The trade-off between environmental goals and economic goals affects all businesses and institutions. The author considers ten specific areas of interaction between environmental and economic objectives and constraints, including inflation, capital investment costs versus pollution effects, health effects of pollution, and land use and housing densities. These and other topics are discussed in light of their present and future impacts on business and the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the investment timing and intensity conditions under which advantages may exist for first movers in environmental investments. The potential advantages on which the paper focuses are timing and intensity of investments in recent pollution-reducing manufacturing technologies that produce salable product at the same time that they reduce pollution. The data come from 50 chemical bleached paper pulp manufacturers in eight countries. The model measures the impact of the independent variables on growth in profits from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, controlling for national differences in environmental regulations, among other variables. Results indicate a positive relationship between timing of investments and profit growth. There is also evidence that more intense investment patterns, when not tempered by sufficient time to absorb the investments, may lead to lower profit growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have suggested that environmental regulations may deter the entry of firms into industries, and their assertions imply that an advantage is thereby conferred on incumbent firms. Empirical analysis showed that environmental regulations inhibited new firm entry in a variety of manufacturing industries. Implications for affected firms and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses social responsibility and stock valuation. An empirical study was made of investors valuation of nine paper companies after substantial publicity was released about their pollution tendencies. Cross-section valuation models were prepared for the four quarters beginning just prior to the publicity. Both institutional purchases and price changes were analyzed to determine the impact of undesirable publicity. The authors look at a correlation between profitability and good pollution control.

This article presents a comparative study of the costs of two possible policies for controlling automobile emissions of air pollution. It argues that the U.S. mandatory emission standards policy is both more costly and less equitably allocated than the costs of an alternative policy: a direct tax on motor vehicle emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In order to investigate the influences of turbulent airflow disturbance from coal cutting on pollution characteristics of coal dust, the airflow migration and the coal dust dispersion was numerically simulated. For its research results, the local spray closure dedust technique was proposed and field test was carried out in the No. 905 fully-mechanized mining face of Jiangzhuang Coal Mine owned by Shandong Energy Zaozhuang Mining Group Co., Ltd. The results demonstrated that the turbulent airflow from coal cutting was quite stable, which can hardly be blown away by the ventilation airflow at a mean initial velocity of 1.3 m/s. There was an interaction between turbulent airflow from coal cutting and system ventilation airflow, resulting in further deviation of airflow. The velocity component along the positive direction of Y-axis was mainly responsible for the formation of deviated airflow and its migration from shearer haulage space to footway space. The regions with a mean deviated velocity component of over 0.3 m/s corresponded to heavy pollution regions in which the mean dust concentration exceeded 100 mg/m3. Compared with the original dust suppression measures, the local spray closure dedust technique can enhance the removal ratio of respiratory dust by an average of 26.7% and the coal dust concentration are less than 50 mg/m3 where the drum drivers and support moving worker operated. Highlights • Disturbance characteristics of turbulent airflow from coal cutting were simulated. • Respiratory zone and areas of personnel operation weren't regarded as fixed position. • Distribution characteristics of deviated velocity component of airflow were studied. • The local spray closure dedust technique was proposed and tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In this paper, we study a competitive economy where a pollution externality, coming from production, impairs the renewable resource affecting the consumption demand in turn. A proportional tax, levied on the production level, is introduced to finance public depollution expenditures. In the long run, two steady states can coexist, the one with a lower resource level, the other with a higher level. Interestingly, a higher green tax rate reduces the natural resource in the low steady state, giving rise to a Green Paradox (Sinn, 2008). Moreover, the green tax can be welfare-improving in the higher steady state but never in the lower one. Therefore, in the second one, it is better to reduce the green tax rate as much as possible. Conversely, the optimal tax rate is positive and unique in the steady state with more natural resource. In the short run, the two steady states can collide and disappear through a saddle–node bifurcation. Since consumption and natural resource are substitutable goods, a limit cycle can arise around the higher stationary state. To the contrary, this kind of cycles never occurs around the lower steady state, no matter the resource effect on consumption. Finally, focusing on the variety of bifurcations of codimension two, we find a Bogdanov–Takens loop. Highlights • We consider a competitive Ramsey model where a pollution externality impairs a renewable resource. • A non-separable utility function between consumption and the natural resource is introduced. • Two steady states can coexist: a welfare and a stability analysis are performed for each steady state. • Saddle–node, Hopf and Bogdanov–Takens bifurcations can occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study argues that economic growth does not necessarily reverse the pollution haven behavior, even if one economy shifts from the low-income group to the high-income one (i.e., the economy in transition). The economy in transition can become a convergence of trade-related pollution, then getting stuck in a “pollution trap”. Through investigating the case of China during 2003–2009, this study examines the features and causes of trade-related pollution trap. Supported by the World Input-Output database and the product-specific statistics from China Customs, this study applies the input-output analysis to trace the distribution of pollution embodied in China’s foreign trade. Then it constructs a “sector-country-year” panel and applies the fixed effect model to examine causes of the pollution trap. The results show that China’s pollution terms of trade (PTT) with developing economies increases and exceeds one, while the PTT with developed economies keeps larger than one. It supports the feature of “pollution trap”. The results also demonstrate that “pollution trap” is determined by the synergy of environmental regulation, inter-industry trade, and intra-industry trade: (1) Environmental regulations keep China from becoming pollution haven of developed economies rather than relocating pollution-intensive production to other developing economies. (2) The current intra-industry trade of low value-added products worsens China’s environmental performance. (3) The diluting advantage on labor and the accumulating advantage on capital keep China specializing in pollution-intensive production. Overall, the “pollution trap” may alert economies that applies the outward-oriented growth model to prepare for sustainability transition. Our findings imply that “going green” rather than “moving away” is essential in response to trade-environment effects. More stringent regulation should improve the environmental performance of production and encourage the utilization of clean technology. The increasing role of intra-industry trade requires to upgrade the commodity structure towards one with higher added-value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sector coverage matters greatly in designing China's national emissions trading system (ETS), with issues to be considered including impacts on emission reduction, economic and social welfare change, and carbon leakage to uncovered sectors. In this article, we evaluate various policy choices by setting up six scenarios in a China computable general equilibrium model. To investigate the optimal choice determining which sectors should be covered, criteria such as emission scale, trade intensity, emission intensity and complex indicators of optimal carbon revenue are compared. In addition, double counting of electricity production- and consumption-related carbon emissions is also included as a specific scenario, as it might be utilized to deal with the problem of price regulation of the electricity sector in China. The simulation result shows that the emissions intensity scenario can achieve the best emissions reduction effect, and the optimal carbon revenue scenario can achieve the best economic and welfare effect. All scenarios show that partial coverage will not lead to significant inter-sectoral carbon leakage in the current construction of the national ETS. Although the double counting of emissions from the electricity sector can lead to the lowest inter-sectoral carbon leakage rate, its emissions reduction effect, economic effect and welfare effect are all inferior to the other scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is expected to launch its national emissions trading scheme (ETS) in 2017. When designing an ETS, the cap, coverage and allocation are three key elements that must be considered. In general, three approaches are used to determine a scheme's cap, coverage and allocation when considering whether a cap should be set and the method of setting a cap, namely, no-cap, top-down and bottom-up approaches. However, as a multi-tiered ETS established in an emerging economy, China's national ETS faces special economic, technical and bargaining cost issues. To address these special issues, a unique approach, which is different from general approaches in theory and in major global ETSs, has been used in China's national ETS to integrate its cap, coverage and allocation. Based on a comparative analysis of general approaches in theory and practice, this article provides a detailed introduction to the method for integrating the cap, coverage and allocation in China's national ETS. It further reveals three challenges behind this unique approach and puts forward relevant policy suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, along with rapid economic growth, China’s environmental problems have become increasingly prominent. At the same time, the level of China’s pollution has been growing rapidly, which has caused huge damages to the residents’ health. In this regard, the public health expenditure ballooned as the environmental quality deteriorated in China. In this study, the effect of environmental pollution on residents’ health expenditure is empirically investigated by employing the first-order difference generalized method of moments (GMM) method to control for potential endogeneity. Using a panel data of Chinese provinces for the period of 1998-2015, this study found that the environmental pollution (represented by SO2 and soot emissions) would indeed lead to the increase in the medical expenses of Chinese residents. At the current stage of economic development, an increase in SO2 and soot emissions per capita would push up the public health expenditure per capita significantly. The estimation results are quite robust for different types of regression specifications and different combinations of control variables. Some social and economic variables such as public services and education may also have remarkable influences on residential medical expenses through different channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are various schools of thought regarding the relationship between the environment and economy. Ecological modernization argues that the harmful effects of economic growth and development on the environment decline through time, whereas the treadmill of production and ecologically unequal exchange postulate different perspectives. This study relies on World Bank and World Resources Institute data for the period of 1965–2010. Time‐series cross‐sectional Prais‐Winsten (PW) regression models with panel‐corrected standard errors (PCSE) are employed to examine whether economic growth and trade openness intensified or decoupled in relation to three measures of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions during this period. The findings of this study indicate that there has been a “tilt” in the treadmill of production—that is, the most environmentally degrading production processes have moved to less developed countries. Furthermore, integration into the world economy has been associated with an intensification in CO2 emissions for less developed countries. Surprisingly, however, this phenomenon does not seem to be driven by exports sent to high‐income nations, suggesting that there are mechanisms embodied within the global organization of production that require further exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accumulation of pollution negatively impacts human health. Extreme increases in pollution, in particular, may have lethal implications for human beings, and, indeed, all living organisms. This paper thus devises a new model of economic growth that takes into account these lethal effects of accumulated pollution via a pollution threshold to show two key results. First, if an abatement technology is relatively inefficient, there exists a stationary steady state in which consumption and pollution stop growing. Second, if the abatement technology is sufficiently efficient, there exists a path along which pollution decreases at an accelerating rate until it finally reaches zero. In this case, consumption grows at a constant rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study explores the trend of selected air pollutants, carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen dioxide NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and particulate matter 10 microns in diameter (PM10) in India. Environmental Kuznets curves (EKC), which show the association of the economy and pollution, are fitted for selected Indian states to understand whether EKC in India fits well with the inverted “U” shape. We observed that CO2 and PM10 are steadily increasing in India. The states of Kerala and Punjab follow the inverted “U” shape of EKC, while Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Maharashtra may take decades to reduce pollutants. A new Sustainable Human Development Index calculated in this paper indicates a diverse picture of Indian states, especially in regard to environmental parameters. The government needs to implement stringent, state‐specific laws and regulations to assist in curbing air pollutants. The time has also come to represent the rankings of states in terms of an environmentally inclusive development index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Externality is a form of market failure, and also a starting point for government intervention. Environmental quality, as local public goods, has a characteristic of regional spillover, thus the intervention of government is crucial. Fiscal policy is widely seen as an effective tool for environmental management. The existing literature about fiscal decentralization’s effect on environmental pollution did not consider about spatial correlation in factor market segmentation. To explore such decentralized effect through factor distortions, we develop a two-sector model on the constraint of pollution emissions and market segmentations, and conduct an empirical estimation using Chinese provincial panel data from 15 years. The results show that there is a big difference between expenditure and revenue decentralization on pollution, furthermore, market segmentation exacerbated the environmental effects of fiscal decentralization and its positive role on environmental pollution is statistically more significant. Therefore, a better way out of pollution for policy making viewpoint is to adjust the decentralization structure and to break the productive factor market segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis (EKC), considering the primary energy consumption among other country-specific variables, for a panel of the EU-28 countries during the period 1990–2014. By estimating pooled OLS regressions with Driscoll-Kraay standard errors in order to account for cross-sectional dependence, the results confirm the EKC hypothesis in the case of emissions of sulfur oxides and emissions of non-methane volatile organic compounds. In addition to pooled estimations, the output of fixed-effects regressions with Driscoll-Kraay standard errors support the EKC hypothesis for greenhouse gas emissions, greenhouse gas emissions intensity of energy consumption, emissions of nitrogen oxides, emissions of non-methane volatile organic compounds and emissions of ammonia. Additionally, the empirical findings from panel vector error correction model reveal a short-run unidirectional causality from GDP per capita growth to greenhouse gas emissions, as well as a bidirectional causal link between primary energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, since there occurred no causal link between economic growth and primary energy consumption, the neo-classical view was confirmed, namely the neutrality hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The policy debate on economic growth and CO 2 emissions is topical: corruption may affect this relationship by raising pollution at given income levels and by reducing per capita income. This research proposed a newly formulated conceptual framework to explore the moderating role of corruption on the relationship between growth and CO 2 emissions by applying a partial least square regression model for a panel of BRICS countries from 1996 to 2015. Overall, from our empirical findings, we infer that the moderating role of corruption is crucial in the relationship between economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions and control of corruption reduce CO 2 emissions. Furthermore, a significant moderating effect of corruption is observed on the relationship between urbanisation and carbon dioxide emissions in the case of BRICS countries, which signifies poor environmental performance therein. Also, control of corruption has a moderating effect on the relationship between trade and CO 2 emissions. The variance importance analysis confirms the reliability of our results. The novel finding of the study not only advances the prior literature also provides a more clearer picture of the growth-emission nexus. The new findings can be of special interest to policymakers as they seek to control pollution at national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a polluted river passes through several different regions, a challenging question is how should the costs for cleaning the river be shared among the regions. Following Ni and Wang (2007) and Dong et al. (2012) , we first show that the Upstream Equal Sharing method and the Downstream Equal Sharing method coincide with the conjunctive permission value ( van den Brink and Gilles, 1996 ) of an associated game with a permission structure , which is obtained as the Shapley value of an associated restricted game. Two main advantages of this approach are (i) we obtain new axiomatizations of the two sharing methods based on axiomatizations of the conjunctive permission value, and (ii) by applying the alternative disjunctive permission value , obtained as the Shapley value of a different restricted game, we propose the new Upstream Limited Sharing method and provide an axiomatization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since Heal (Explorations in natural resource economics. The Johns Hopkins University Press for Resources for the Future, Baltimore, 1982), there is a theoretical consensus about the occurrence of limit cycles (through a Hopf bifurcation) under a positive effect of pollution on consumption demand (compensation effect) and about the impossibility under a negative effect (distaste effect). However, recent empirical evidence advocates for the relevance of distaste effects. Our paper challenges the conventional view on the theoretical ground and reconciles theory and evidence. The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) (pollution first increases in the capital level then decreases) plays the main role. Indeed, the standard case à la Heal (limit cycles only under a compensation effect) only works along the upward-sloping branch of the curve while the opposite (limit cycles only under a distaste effect) holds along the downward-sloping branch. Welfare effects of taxation also change according to the slope of the EKC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work addressed the problem of environmental pollution that exists in the municipality of Leon, Guanajuato. The metropolitan area of Leon is located in the seventh place of environmental pollution nationwide. The municipality has a population of 1 436 733 inhabitants and concentrates 27.7% of the total vehicular park of the state of Guanajuato and there is also established the most important footwear industry in Mexico, which is reflected in an environmental deterioration. Environmental pollution in Leon is considerable, since 57.2% of the surveyed population states that air quality is bad. This situation is reflected in the environmental deterioration and health problems of the inhabitants of the city. The main objective of the research has been to estimate the willingness to pay by the population of the municipality of Leon, Guanajuato, for the creation of a green fund to help mitigate the environmental problems of the municipality. To estimate the DAP, the contingent valuation method was used, for which surveys were conducted to the inhabitants of the city of León, in this way the necessary information was collected in order to obtain the DAP of the inhabitants of the city. The average DAP per inhabitant estimated was $131.15 pesos, earning an annual income of around $60 408 083.45 pesos; that is, $4 174 712.06 dollars in the year of 2014, taking as reference a vehicular park of 460 603 units (UAIP, 2015) for the same year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-cost sensor technology can potentially revolutionise the area of air pollution monitoring by providing high-density spatiotemporal pollution data. Such data can be utilised for supplementing traditional pollution monitoring, improving exposure estimates, and raising community awareness about air pollution. However, data quality remains a major concern that hinders the widespread adoption of low-cost sensor technology. Unreliable data may mislead unsuspecting users and potentially lead to alarming consequences such as reporting acceptable air pollutant levels when they are above the limits deemed safe for human health. This article provides scientific guidance to the end-users for effectively deploying low-cost sensors for monitoring air pollution and people's exposure, while ensuring reasonable data quality. We review the performance characteristics of several low-cost particle and gas monitoring sensors and provide recommendations to end-users for making proper sensor selection by summarizing the capabilities and limitations of such sensors. The challenges, best practices, and future outlook for effectively deploying low-cost sensors, and maintaining data quality are also discussed. For data quality assurance, a two-stage sensor calibration process is recommended, which includes laboratory calibration under controlled conditions by the manufacturer supplemented with routine calibration checks performed by the end-user under final deployment conditions. For large sensor networks where routine calibration checks are impractical, statistical techniques for data quality assurance should be utilised. Further advancements and adoption of sophisticated mathematical and statistical techniques for sensor calibration, fault detection, and data quality assurance can indeed help to realise the promised benefits of a low-cost air pollution sensor network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inefficient use of fertilizers by crops increases the risk of nutrient leaching from agro-ecosystems, resulting in economic loss and environmental contamination. We investigated how ground-level ozone affects the efficiency by which wheat used applied nitrogen (N) fertilizer to produce grain protein (NE P , N efficiency with respect to protein yield) and grain yield (NE Y , N efficiency with respect to grain yield) across a large number of open-top chamber field experiments. Our results show significant negative ozone effects on NE P and NE Y , both for a larger data set obtained from data mining (21 experiments, 70 treatments), and a subset of data for which stomatal ozone flux estimates were available (7 experiments, 22 treatments). For one experiment, we report new data on N content of different above-ground plant fractions as well as grain K and P content. Our analysis of the combined dataset demonstrates that the grain yield return for a certain investment in N fertilizer is reduced by ozone. Results from the experiment with more detailed data further show that translocation of accumulated N from straw and leaves to grains is significantly and negatively affected by ozone, and that ozone decreases fertilizer efficiency also for K and P. As a result of lower N fertilization efficiency, ozone causes a risk of increased N losses from agroecosystems, e.g. through nitrate leaching and nitrous oxide emissions, a hitherto neglected negative effect of ozone. This impact of ozone on the N cycle implies that society is facing a dilemma where it either (i) accepts increased N pollution and counteracts ozone-induced yield reductions by increasing fertilization or (ii) counteracts N pollution under elevated ozone by reducing fertilization, accepting further yield loss adding to the direct effect of ozone on yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maternal exposure to particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter < 10 μm (PM 10 ) during pregnancy results in adverse birth outcomes. Changes in placental DNA methylation might mediate those adverse effects. In this study, we examined the associations between prenatal PM 10 exposure and DNA methylation of LINE1 , HSD11B2 and NR3C 1 in human placenta. One hundred and eighty-one mother newborn pairs (80 fetal growth restriction newborns, 101 normal newborns) participated in this study. The average PM 10 exposure of each trimester and of the whole pregnancy was calculated using daily air pollution concentration data. Placental DNA methylation was measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction-pyrosequencing. Placental LINE-1 DNA methylation was reversely associated with first trimester PM 10 exposure 1.78% (− β = 1.78, 95% CI: − 3.35, − 0.22%), while placental HSD11B2 DNA methylation was associated with both first and second trimester PM 10 exposure, and relatively increased by 1.03% (95% CI: 0.07, 1.98%) and 2.33% (95% CI: 0.69, 3.76%) for each 10 μg/m 3 increase in exposure to PM 10 . Those associations were much more evident in fetal growth restriction newborns than those in normal newborns. In summary, early pregnancy PM 10 exposure was associated with placental DNA methylation of LINE1 and HSD11B2 , suggesting that such methylation alterations might mediate PM-induced reproductive and developmental toxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological parameters based on multiply functional traits have many advantages for monitoring programs by reducing “signal to noise” ratios of observed species data. To identify potential indicators for bioassessment of marine pollution in function space, the functional patterns of protozoan communities and relationships with environmental changes were studied in coastal waters of the Yellow Sea during a 1-year period. The results showed that: (1) the spatial variability in functional trait distributions of the protozoa was significantly associated with changes in environmental variables, especially chemical oxygen demand (COD) and nutrients on spatial scale; (2) the functional traits, especially food resources and feeding type, were significantly correlated with COD and nutrients; and (3) the functional diversity indices were generally related to nutrients or COD. Based on the results, we suggest that the functional traits and diversity indices of protozoan communities may be used as more effective indicators for bioassessment of marine pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, many studies have studied economic dispatch problem in power systems. However, most of them have not considered the environmental pollution caused by fossil fuels. In this study, the use of an evolutionary search algorithm called multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm is proposed to solve the economic dispatch problem in power systems while considering environmental pollution. The proposed method is validated in terms of its accuracy and convergence speed based on comparisons with the results obtained using the classic nonlinear programming method. The proposed strategy is applied to a realistic power system under various conditions. Overall, six generating units are investigated along the corresponding constraints. The results obtained reveal that costs of operation and pollution with/without power loss are reduced significantly by the proposed approach. Obtained results show a good compromise can be established between two contradicting functions of exploitation cost and pollution by optimizing them simultaneously. Values of these function without considering their loss is 46,112.09 $/h and 682.32 kg/h, respectively. And if losses are considered, these values would be 48,381.09 $/h and 726.52 kg/h, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rents and political motives are present in many aspects of public policy. This article considers the role of rents, rent seeking, and the political choice of environmental policy. Rents are introduced into the political choice of price and quantity regulation under conditions of uncertainty. The model shows how political-economy aspects affect the choice between price and quantity regulation. The contesting of rents associated with different policies affects the regulatory structure and influences the political choice of an environmental policy target. The primary conclusion is that the political choice of environmental policy depends on the interaction between the efficiency of rent transfer and the size of rent-seeking groups within the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decentralization can improve service delivery, but it can also generate externalities across jurisdictional boundaries. We examine the nature and size of water pollution externalities as rivers flow across jurisdictions. Panel data on water pollution in Brazilian rivers coupled with county splits that change the locations of borders allow us to identify the spatial patterns of pollution as rivers approach and cross borders, controlling for fixed effects and trends specific to each location. The theory of externalities predicts that pollution should increase at an increasing rate as the river approaches the downstream exit border, that there should be a structural break in the slope of the pollution function at the border, and that a larger number of managing jurisdictions should exacerbate pollution externalities. We find support for all four predictions in the data. Satellite data on growth in night-time lights along rivers show that local authorities allow more settlements to develop close to rivers in the downstream portions of counties, which is the likely underlying mechanism. The border effects on pollution are not as pronounced when the cost of inter-jurisdictional coordination is lower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign direct investment (FDI) may have a positive effect on the level of pollution in host countries, as described by the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH). However, this kind of effect may depend on the economic conditions in host countries. In this study, we conduct research on the FDI's effect on China's CO2 emissions during the market-oriented reform. The results are as follows. Firstly, FDI directly promotes China's CO2 emissions. Secondly, with market-oriented reform, this positive effect from FDI is lowering year by year, which indicates that the market-oriented reform could alleviate the positive effect of FDI on China's CO2 emissions. Thirdly, as China's market-oriented reform was implemented gradually from experimental zones to the whole country, regional market development is uneven, and as such so is FDI's effect on local CO2 emissions. Provinces in the eastern area generally evidenced higher market development and lower CO2 emissions from FDI, while four provinces in west area evidenced both lower market development and higher CO2 emissions from FDI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment of the health and economic impacts of PM2.5pollution is of great importance for urban air pollution prevention and control. In this study, we evaluate the damage of PM2.5pollution using Beijing as an example. First, we use exposure–response functions to estimate the adverse health effects due to PM2.5pollution. Then, the corresponding labour loss and excess medical expenditure are computed as two conducting variables. Finally, different from the conventional valuation methods, this paper introduces the two conducting variables into the computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to assess the impacts on sectors and the whole economic system caused by PM2.5pollution. The results show that, substantial health effects of the residents in Beijing from PM2.5pollution occurred in 2013, including 20,043 premature deaths and about one million other related medical cases. Correspondingly, using the 2010 social accounting data, Beijing gross domestic product loss due to the health impact of PM2.5pollution is estimated as 1286.97 (95% CI: 488.58–1936.33) million RMB. This demonstrates that PM2.5pollution not only has adverse health effects, but also brings huge economic loss. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]