The Integration Pollution and Prevention Control (IPPC) directive from the European Union implies that the regulatory emission caps should be set in accordance with each industry’s Best Available Techniques (BAT). The directive is under implementation in Norway, and it represents a refocus of the Norwegian environmental regulations away from economic efficiency towards a BAT principle. We examine the effect of this implementation with respect to expected emission reductions and increases in costs. Data Envelopment Analyses (DEA) is used to construct a frontier of all efficient plants. This provides us with two alternative interpretations of BAT. First, we assume that all the plants emit in accordance with the best practice technology, represented by the frontier, by reducing all inputs proportionally. Second, we assume that all plants emit in accordance with the best practice technology by reducing emissions only. Both interpretations reveal substantial potential for emission reductions. Further, abatement cost estimates indicate that considerable emission reductions can be achieved with low or no social costs, but that the implementation of BAT for all plants involves substantial costs.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
file. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Research Department of Statistics Norway in its series Discussion Papers with number
411.
Find related papers by JEL classification: D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior K23 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Regulated Industries and Administrative Law K32 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Environmental, Health, and Safety Law L61 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Metals and Metal Products; Cement; Glass; Ceramics L65 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Chemicals; Rubber; Drugs; Biotechnology L73 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Primary Products and Construction - - - Forest Products Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy R38 - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics - - Production Analysis and Firm Location - - - Government Policies; Regulatory Policies
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.: