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- Report n°4: How Much to Spend for the Protection of Health and Environment
Report n°4: How Much to Spend for the Protection of Health and Environment
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Table of contents
- Preface by Pierre Valette
Preface by Pierre Valette
"Getting the prices right" is still considered as an abstract concept and it is now time to make it operational for EU policy-making, in order to take external costs into account when designing policies. External costs are to be calculated in a life-cycle perspective.
This approach already appears in different EU policy documents, such as the Environmental Technology Action Plan and the Integrated Product Policy, just to name a few of them. It is also shaping the forthcoming Thematic Strategies for Natural Resources and for Waste Prevention and Recycling.
The internalisation of external costs is also one of the objectives stated by the EU Strategy for Sustainable Development and these costs also need to be captured when assessing the impacts of EU policies. With the introduction of the Impact Assessment at the Commission, all major policy proposals have to include an assessment of the potential economic, environmental and social impacts both inside and outside the EU that different policy options may involve, including the option of lack of action.
A representative example is offered by the Impact Assessment of the CAFE Strategy (Clean Air For Europe) that has adopted the ExternE approach for calculating the health and environmental impacts of air pollution using the "full chain approach" that starts from the calculation of the emissions up to the concentrations, exposures and impacts. This approach has also been integrated into the Action Plan on Environment and Health. Its objective is to improve the knowledge base on environment and health.
In this context, research has a key role to play in providing the tools and the quantitative data to support policies.
The SUSTOOLS project, funded under the "Environment and Sustainable Development Programme" of the Fifth Framework Programme, certainly contributes to develop and apply to specific case studies methods and tools for quantifying in monetary terms the costs and benefits of proposed environmental measures.
The SUSTOOLS project can provide valid inputs to the implementation of the future "Thematic Strategy for Waste Prevention and Recycling" and also provides insights into a complex policy area, which is that of agricultural and farming practices with a specific focus on the use of fertilisers.
The SUSTOOLS team co-ordinated by Ari Rabl of Ecole des Mines de Paris has been able to build on the results of previous ExternE projects and extend and adapt the use of the Externe methodology to other policy areas than energy and transport to cover the waste and agricultural sectors. In addition, this quantitative monetary approach has been further refined and tested to be incorporated into a wider approach of multi-criteria analysis.
The innovations and methodological developments of SUSTOOLS respond to the new research challenges of the Sixth and the future Seventh Framework Programme, aiming at expanding the knowledge base for a wider application of external costs quantification in various policy contexts.
Pierre Valette
Acting Director
Directorate Environment - DG Research
European Commission