Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Polluting goods'

Systematic removal of trade barrier across many industries during the early 1990s raised a debate over the role of trade on the environment. This thesis attempts to gain a deeper understanding of the environmental implications of trade liberalization in India. Data containing information on tariff rate, import, export, and production for 28 sectors from 1990 to 2001 are obtained from the World Bank Economic Review. To classify different trade sectors by pollution intensity, I used the three-digit International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) system. I used three different specifications with log of real production, export and import as the dependent variables in the empirical model. The coefficient of interest is β_5 which measures the differential impact on the percentage change in the dependent variables, caused by tariff reduction from before to after trade liberalization and from lower to higher polluting industries. My result confirms my first two hypotheses that average tariff reduction (41 percentage point) from pre to post liberalization period increase the total production and export in high polluting industries by 16.4% and 106.6% respectively. The study concludes that differential impact of average tariff reduction during trade liberalization in India promotes heavy polluting industries.

Le premier chapitre montre que le conformisme conduit à une réduction des inégalités de richesse, et même à un rattrapage, lorsqu’un ménage initialement riche travaille moins qu’un ménage initialement pauvre ; et qu’en plus le revenu supplémentaire acquis par le ménage initialement pauvre, en travaillant plus, correspond, plus précisément au surplus de richesse initialement détenu par le ménage riche. Le deuxième chapitre montre que les effets néfastes des prestations sociales sur l’offre de travail sont atténués par le comportement de recherche de statut social. Enfin, le chapitre 3 montre que toute politique environnementale, consistant à taxer les biens polluants et à utiliser les revenus de cette taxation pour subventionner la consommation des biens non polluants, entraîne une augmentation, à la fois, de l’emploi et de la qualité de l’environnement. Cependant, lorsque les biens polluants et les biens non polluants ne sont pas des substituts parfaits, l’augmentation du pouvoir d’achat résultant des subventions peut entraîner une augmentation de la consommation des biens polluants
The first chapter shows that conformism leads to a reduction in wealth inequalities, and even to a catch-up, when an initially rich household works less than an initially poor household ; and that the additional income acquired by the initially poor household, by working more, corresponds, more precisely, to the wealth surplus initially held by the rich household. The second chapter shows that the negative effects of social benefits on labor supply are mitigated by status-seeking behavior. Finally, chapter 3 shows that any environmental policy, consisting of taxing polluting goods and using the revenues from this taxation to subsidize the consumption of non-polluting goods, leads to an increase in both employment and environmental quality. However, when polluting goods and non-polluting goods are not perfect substitutes, the increase in purchasing power resulting from subsidies may lead to an increase in the consumption of polluting goods

Case studies from India have shown that the legal regime governing water pollution control in India has miserably failed. Sectoral approach to water management is quite evident. On the other hand Sweden has shown a remarkable change with regard to environment management. The poor management of a resource makes the resource further poor. Thus effective management of the resources becomes crucial. Good governance has been vital in conservation of a resource. But the issue is what constitutes good governance with respect to water? Law has always played a steering role in governance aspect. But despite having pollution control laws the effective governance of water pollution has not been attainable in India. Are the pollution control laws fundamentally wrong or some other factors prevail which is beyond the reach of law to control the pollution problem. The thesis which is a comparative study of legal framework and their implementation in India and Sweden attempts to explore how control of water pollution has been effectively governed in Sweden and what needs to been done in India.

This thesis is about the rights and liabilities arising under English and Chinese law in respect of the carriage of dangerous cargo. It is noted that the danger in dangerous cargoes was not necessarily something in the goods themselves, but might well lie in the way they were packaged, looked after or transported. Accordingly, the responsibilities and liabilities of the various parties with regards to the carriage of dangerous cargoes are usually intertwined and complex. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse and evaluate the dangerous cargoes liabilities in English and Chinese law, by providing suggestions for existing problems in each country based on three sources: contract, tort and statute. Moreover, the chain of causation and concept of remoteness has particular importance in order to establish liability and decide which type and what amount of damage is recoverable. This thesis compares both countries’ liability regimes and how to secure compensation for its victims, and the restoration of the environment, with reference to the EU Environmental Liability Directive and relevant international conventions. The author draws her final conclusions from four important issues: (1) the meaning of dangerous cargo, the packing and handling; (2) the scheme of liability; (3) the channelling of liability; and (4) the type of recoverable damage.

Depuis le sinistre du pétrolier Torrey Canyon, l'OMI a élaboré les Conventions CLC, SNPD et hydrocarbure. Celles-ci ont mis en place les régimes d'indemnisation des dommages par pollution causés par les navires. Les victimes de la pollution peuvent agir en responsabilité contre le propriétaire du navire ou directement contre l'assureur du propriétaire du navire pour les dommages par pollution (y compris les frais de nettoyage). Selon ces conventions internationales, le propriétaire du navire est en droit de limiter sa responsabilité dont l'indemnité est calculée en fonction du tonnage du navire en cause. De plus, le fonds FIPOL, créé par la convention portant création du fonds FIPOL, prend le relais de la convention CLC lorsque l'indemnité dépasse la limitation de responsabilité prévue par cette dernière convention. Mais est-ce que ces conventions prévoient une indemnisation suffisante pour les dommages par pollution ? Et existe-t-il des conflits entre les conventions internationales ? Il est vrai que la plupart des pollutions marines de faible ampleur sont suffisamment indemnisées. Mais tel n'est pas le cas pour les pollutions majeures. De plus, les conventions CLC, SNPD et hydrocarbures de soute n'ont pas prévu des champs d'application identiques. C'est ainsi que ces conventions internationales sont susceptibles d'être en conflit dans le cas où la pollution est causée par les substances polluantes transportées par le navire et les hydrocarbures de soute du navire en cause. La présente thèse a pour objet de présenter les régimes internationaux de responsabilité civile du propriétaire du navire en matière de pollution marine et essaie de proposer une solution pour résoudre les conflits entre les conventions internationales
Since the Torrey Canyon oil spill, the International Maritime Organization began drafting three international conventions (CLC, HNS and bunker oil conventions) to establish civil liability for compensation for ship-source pollution damages. Claims for compensation for pollution damages (including clean-up costs) may be brought against the owner of ships which caused the damages or directly against the owner's insurer. The ship-owner is normally entitled to limit his liability to an amount which is linked to the tonnage of his ship. Furthermore, the IOPC funds which was set up in 1992 under the IOPC convention 1992 is able to compensate the victims when compensation under the CLC 1992 is not available or not adequate. But do these international regimes work well ? And are there conflicts between the International conventions ? Certainly, the most of loss resulting from oil spills from sea can be compensated by the CLC/ IOPC system. But the compensation under CLC/IOPC is not able to be enough for the major pollution events. If the CLC, HNS and bunker oil Conventions don't set up the same scopes, these International Conventions might be in conflict in case of transportation of dangerous goods or hazardous goods by sea, because the spill of the bunker oil and the hazardous goods would cause a major marine pollution. This paper gives an overview of international liability and compensation regime, and tries to give a proposal to resolve the conflicts between the international conventions

Currently, in the United States, on-road vehicles are primarily powered by petroleum fuels (gasoline and diesel). These vehicles have caused serious climate change effects from emissions of greenhouse gas (GHG) and health and environmental impacts from criteria air pollutant (CAP). The recent success of shale gas development has brought industry interest in using natural gas to power on-road vehicles. In addition to low costs and wide availability of this national fuel source, natural gas is a common feedstock to produce alternative fuels. The question arises of whether using natural gas for transportation could help or hinder the environment. In this dissertation, I study the economic and environmental effects of a wide range of natural gas fuel pathways for a selection of light duty (LDV) and medium and heavy duty (MHDV) vehicle types. I choose to focus on two environmental metrics: GHGs and CAPs emitted over the life cycle of each potential pathway for natural gas use. First in Chapters 2 and 3, I use life-cycle analysis to understand the emissions of GHGs from different natural gas pathway for LDVs and MHDVs. Then in Chapter 4 I focus on the CAP emissions from these vehicles. Overall, I find that none of the natural gas pathways eliminate life cycle air emissions. In fact, only a few pathways reduce life cycle GHG emissions and/or life cycle air pollution damages compared to baseline petroleum fuels (gasoline for light-duty vehicles (LDVs) and diesel for heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs)). For the cases of light duty vehicles (LDVs) and transit buses, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) powered by natural gas-based electricity provide significant reduction in life cycle GHG emissions and life cycle air pollution damages (for almost all counties) compared to the baseline petroleum fuels. However, the actual electricity that charges BEVs may not be natural gas-based electricity in most parts of the U.S. When powered by U.S. grid electricity (using average emission factors for 2010 and 2014), BEVs reduce life cycle GHG emissions to a lesser extent but increase life cycle air pollution damages significantly. Compressed natural gas (CNG), while reducing GHG emissions and CAP emissions (except CO) at tailpipe, are more likely to increase life cycle GHG emissions and increase life cycle air pollution damages in the majority of U.S. counties. For heavy-duty trucks, CNG sparking-ignition (SI) trucks and liquefied natural gas (LNG) high-pressure direct ignition (HPDI) trucks have mixed environmental impacts. While they are unlikely to reduce life cycle GHG emissions compared to diesel, they reduce life cycle air pollution damages in 76-99% of U.S. counties for local-haul tractor-trailers and in 32-71% of U.S. counties for long-haul tractor-trailers. In Chapters 5 and 6, I examine the economic impacts of natural gas fuel pathways for two vehicle types, tractor-trailers and transit buses. I study the economic feasibility of a national natural gas refueling infrastructure for long-haul trucks in U.S., which is a prerequisite for natural gas tractor-trailers. I find that a transition to natural gas fuels in long-haul trucks is more expensive when the shares of natural gas trucks are below 5% because of low refueling demands and over-capacity of the refueling infrastructure to ensure network coverage. At higher shares of natural gas trucks, both the total refueling capacity and the net economic benefits of the national refueling infrastructure increase almost linearly as adoption increases. Finally, in Chapter 6, I provide an economic-technology assessment for transit buses by considering both life cycle ownership costs and life cycle social costs due to GHG emissions and CAP emissions. Transit buses are early adopters of alternative fuel technologies because of funding supports and operation characteristics (such as high fuel consumption and private refueling infrastructure). I find that the availability of external funding is crucial for transit agencies to adopt any alternative fuel option. Without external funding, only rapid-charging battery electric buses (BEBs) have lower ownership & social costs than conventional diesel buses. When external funding is available to reduce bus purchase costs by 80%, BEBs become much more cost-effective. In this case, life cycle ownership and social costs of BEBs are 37-43% lower than conventional diesel buses. Including life cycle social costs does not change the ranking of alternative fuel options. The findings in this dissertation suggest different strategies of using natural gas for different vehicle markets. Natural gas is best used in electric power generation than to produce gaseous or liquid fuels for powering on-road LDVs. The use of CNG and LNG for heavy-duty trucks may continue as there are less alternative fuel options but issues such as methane leakage should be addressed to avoid important climate change effect. Finally, natural gas-based transportation fuels can at best partially mitigate climate change or air pollution damages, so other mitigation strategies in the transportation sector are ultimately needed to achieve sustainable transportation.

Le transport maritime est d'une importance stratégique pour l'économie de l'Union européenne. Chaque année, un milliard de tonnes de pétrole transitent par les ports et les eaux de l'UE et deux milliards de tonnes de marchandises sont chargées et déchargées dans ses ports. C'est pourquoi, depuis le naufrage de l'Amoco Cadiz et les conséquences désastreuses, tant pour l'environnement que pour l'économie qui en découlèrent, l'Union européenne ne cesse de développer et d'intensifier sa politique de sécurité maritime dans le but de mettre un terme à la navigation sous normes, essentiellement par une application effective des règles internationales en la matière. Depuis 1993, l'UE et ses États membres sont au premier plan afin d'améliorer la législation en matière de sécurité du transport maritime de marchandises et substances dangereuses pour éliminer les navires sous-normes, augmenter la protection des équipages, réduire le risque de pollution de l'environnement et veiller à ce que les opérateurs qui suivent les bonnes pratiques ne soient pas désavantagés commercialement par rapport à ceux qui sont prêts à prendre des raccourcis avec la sécurité des navires. Les accidents de l'Erika et du Prestige encouragèrent l'UE à réformer radicalement son régime juridique et à adopter de nouvelles règles et normes de prévention des accidents en mer, en particulier celles impliquant les pétroliers. Depuis plus de trente ans l'UE n'a cessé de renforcer et d'améliorer son arsenal législatif. Elle fit évoluer sa réglementation consécutivement aux divers accidents qui vinrent frapper ses côtes ; c'est pourquoi la sécurité du transport maritime sera toujours en évolution
Maritime transport has strategic importance for the economy of the European Union. Each year, one billion tons of oil pass through the ports and waters of the EU. Two billion tons of goods are loaded and unloaded in its ports. Because of the disastrous consequences the sinking of Amoco Cadiz has had on the environment and economy, the European Union continues to develop and strengthen its policy on maritime safety in order to put an end to substandard shipping, primarily through the effective application of international rules. Since 1993, the European Union and its Member States are at the forefront improving legislation on the safety of maritime transport of dangerous goods and substances, striving to eliminate substandard ships, increase protection of the crew, reduce the risk of environmental pollution. The EU is insuring operators who are following the best practices, compared to those who are willing to take shortcuts with the safety of ships, are not commercially disadvantaged. Accidents of the Erika and Prestige encouraged the EU to radically reform its legal system and to adopt new rules and standards for the prevention of accidents at sea, particularly those involving tankers. For more than thirty years the European Union has not stopped to strengthen and to improve its legislation in order to better protect itself against the risks of pollution due to maritime transports of dangerous goods. It has updated its regulation consecutivly to several accidents which damaged its coasts ; that is why the safety of maritme transport will always be evolving

The main purpose of the diploma thesis is to determine the willingness of people visiting the Eastern Slovak dam Ružín to pay for improving water quality, namely for the environmental good. Willingness to pay is determined by questionnaire investigation the contingent valuation method. Dam is a public good, which has no owner. We all use it without someone to care for it. This use is not positive, but negative in terms of pollution, clogging of toxic sediments. The theoretical part is devoted to construction and the need to build dam as well as environmental problems, which occur at the dam. This is related to the problem of public good and "the tragedy of the commons." There are the contingent valuation method and development of the questionnaire described at the end of theoretical part. The practical part consists of the evaluation questionnaire investigation and the linear regression model in terms of the parameters under which they were created identifiers variables and point estimates. Finally, it is converted by statistical analysis of the impact of variables on the amount that people are willing to pay.

Les activités humaines sont la principale cause des changements globaux avec des conséquences néfastes sur l’ensemble de la biodiversité, aussi bien terrestre que marine. Dans ce contexte, de nombreux pays dont la France souhaite endiguer ce phénomène à travers l’amélioration des réseaux de surveillance et de gestion des écosystèmes à l’aide de nouvelles méthodes et approches qui visent, notamment l’atteinte d’un bon état écologique de leurs masses d’eaux. C’est l’objectif principal que s’est fixé ce projet de thèse, en se concentrant sur un écosystème sentinelle de Méditerranée, les herbiers de Posidonia oceanica. P. oceanica est une plante sous-marine endémique de méditerranée, indicatrice de la qualité de son environnement. En croisant sa distribution spatiale avec des données biologiques et de pressions anthropiques, il est possible de proposer des nouveaux indicateurs faciles à calculer à l’échelle de tout le littoral français (1800 km).Nous avons par une approche multidisciplinaire, mêlant cartographie participative, analyse d’images anciennes et données écologiques actuelles, pu localiser d’anciens herbiers aujourd’hui disparus et quantifier l’importance du déclin (70 % en 66 années par exemple à Agde et Rochelongue). Nos résultats montrent aussi que les indices de composition et de configuration paysagère reflètent bien l’état de conservation d’un herbier de P. oceanica. En utilisant ces indices paysagers, nous avons mis en place une nouvelle approche pour définir des zones de conservation clés pour la gestion de P. oceanica sur la base de l’influence de variables environnementales et d’activités humaines. Enfin nous avons aussi montré qu’en dégradant les herbiers de P. oceanica, les activités humaines favorisent l’installation d’algues exotiques envahissantes, mais peuvent aussi constituer un frein à ces mêmes invasions en modifiant les conditions locales environnementales et en les rendant défavorables aux espèces invasives.Ces résultats laissent présager de multiples applications pour améliorer la gestion et la surveillance du milieu marin en Méditerranée française
Human activities are the main cause of global changes with adverse impacts on all biodiversity, both terrestrial and marine. In this context, many countries, including France, wish to stop this problem by improving networks for monitoring and managing ecosystems using new methods and approaches that aim, in particular, to achieve good ecological status of their water masses. This is the main objective of this thesis project, focusing on a Mediterranean sentinel ecosystem, the Posidonia oceanica seagrass. P. oceanica is an underwater plant endemic to the Mediterranean, and an indicator of the quality of its environment. By linking its spatial distribution with biological data and anthropogenic pressures, it is possible to develop new indicators that are easy to measure at the scale of the entire French coastline (1800 km).Through a multidisciplinary approach, combining participatory mapping, analysis of old images and current ecological data, we have been able to identify the location of former P. oceanica seagrass that have now disappeared and quantify the extent of the decline (70% in 66 years for example in Agde and Rochelongue). Our results also show that the indices of landscape composition and configuration reflect well the state of conservation of a P. oceanica seagrass. Using these landscape indices, we have developed a new approach to define key conservation areas for the management of P. oceanica based on the influence of environmental variables and human activities. Finally, we have also shown that by degrading the P. oceanica seagrass, human activities favour the installation of invasive exotic algae, but can also act as a barrier to invasions by modifying local environmental conditions and making them unfavourable to invasive species.These results suggest multiple applications to improve the management and monitoring of the marine environment in the French Mediterranean

This thesis explores some theoretical and empirical issues in the voluntary contributions to public good. Chapter I contains a brief motivation and introduction. In chapters II and III, we analyze two non-cooperative methods for either enhancing or mitigating externality-causing activities. Chapter II deals with positive externality in the public good contribution context, and chapter III with negative externality in the pollution abatement context. Chapter IV contains an empirical analysis of charitable donations by the elderly. Chapter II models the so-called ``corporate challenge gift'' used in real world fund-raising, and adopts the concept to voluntary contributions to public goods more generally. We model the process as a sequential game in public good contributions. One of the agents sets a quantity-contingent matching scheme to leverage higher contributions from the other players. Under the assumption that the preferences of agents are public information and the assumption that the scheme setter can commit to the matching plan, we show that the scheme brings efficient levels of total contributions to the public good. Chapter III applies some ideas from a joint work with Professor Robin Boadway and Professor Jean-Fran\c{c}ois Tremblay on ``Commitment and Matching Contributions to Public Goods'' to the issue of reducing negative externality-causing activity. In particular, it adapts both the Guttman-Danziger-Schnytzer type of rate-matching mechanism and the quantity-contingent matching method for public good contributions to the international pollution abatement problem. In a simple two-country model, we find that both matching schemes induce the countries to internalize the negative externality imposed on the other country. However, perhaps due to the lack of enough policy instruments, they cannot equate the marginal costs of abatement across the countries, leaving room for Pareto improvement. This further improvement can be achieved if the two countries also contribute to a conventional public~good. Chapter IV is an empirical exercise on some positive externality-generating activities by the elderly. It attempts to document the charitable giving of money and time by people aged 60 or above in the 2003 PSID data for the United States and analyze the influences of some economic and demographic factors on these activities. Income, wealth, the subjective rating of health status, and years in school are found to have statistically significant impacts. Income and wealth appear to have distinct influences. The tax price of money donation also has a statistically significant effect on money donations.
Thesis (Ph.D, Economics) -- Queen's University, 2007-11-19 01:48:10.777

This thesis addresses a broad research question “Is there a link between international production fragmentation and environment?” In order to investigate this research question, this thesis develops a theoretical model that allows one to establish a link between international production fragmentation induced-international trade in intermediate goods and pollution. Using country level panel data from East Asia, the link between international trade in intermediate goods and carbon emission is empirically investigated. The theoretical model used in this thesis is based on the pioneering work of Copeland and Taylor (2003). Specifically, a general equilibrium model is used, where an industrial good is produced by means of a large number of varieties of an intermediate good. The production of the intermediate good leads to environmental pollution. Government controls the level of pollution through pollution permits. The equilibrium level of pollution is determined by the interaction of demand and supply of permits. Liberalisation of trade in intermediate good leads to an increase in the number of varieties that are available to industrial good producers. The theoretical model suggests that an increase in trade in intermediate goods can result in higher level of pollution in developed countries. In other words, opening up of international trade in intermediate goods, through increased fragmentation of intermediate good production, causes more environmental damage in developed countries compared to developing countries. The theoretical model is also used to examine the link between government environmental policy and comparative advantage. When two countries are identical in every respect, except for differences in their environmental policy, the country with a relatively strict environmental policy is found to be a net importer of varieties of the intermediate good that cause pollution. In other words, countries that have relatively strict environmental policy import pollution intensive products. Based on the theoretical results and the existing literature, three empirical research questions are developed. These questions are answered by testing a series of hypotheses using country level panel data over the period of 1998 to 2010. The data covers all major East Asian countries and their trading partners. The first empirical research question “Does growth in trade in intermediate goods lead to environmental degradation?” is answered by empirical estimation of an augmented environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) model. The empirical results suggest that imports do not affect the level of pollution in East Asia. However, the exports of intermediate goods are found to reduce pollution, which is good for the environment. The second empirical research question “What is the impact of pollution on international production fragmentation and trade in intermediate goods?” is answered by making use of an extend trade gravity model, where pollution has been introduced as one of the determinants of trade in intermediate goods. Pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) and panel fixed and random effects approaches are used. This analysis is based on different assumptions regarding the multilateral trade resistance (MTR) of the sample countries. The empirical results suggest that in general pollution has a positive impact on trade in intermediate goods. However, the strength of this relationship varies across different measures of trade in intermediate goods and model specifications. The last empirical research “Is the relationship between trade in intermediate goods and environment affected by the level of economic development?” is answered by the comparison study of different country groups. The empirical analysis suggests that the level of economic development does play an important role. This thesis makes a significant contribution to both theoretical and empirical literature that deals with the link between international trade and pollution. The theoretical results show that international production fragmentation induced-trade in intermediate goods can also affect the equilibrium level of pollution. The main empirical contribution of this thesis is that it explicitly focuses on the link between trade in intermediate goods and environment in East Asia. East Asia accounts for a very large proportion of world trade in intermediate goods. At the same time East Asia also includes some of the most polluted regions of the world. It is shown that environment-trade nexus is also affected by the level of economic development, which allows a better understanding of the implications of economic development.

Many of the factors that shape contaminant accumulation profiles in marine mammals also strongly influence fat soluble vitamin accumulation. Vitamin A and E are essential fat soluble nutrients for numerous biological processes, including reproduction, growth, endocrine and immune function. Contaminants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), can alter vitamin dynamics; as such these vitamins have been proposed as sensitive biomarkers of contaminant exposure in wildlife. In light of these considerations, the present thesis was aimed at better understanding the factors that influence the accumulation of lipophilic contaminants and vitamins in western Arctic beluga whales, and to determine if there was an interaction between the two. Maternal offloading to neonates during gestation reduced overall contaminant (PCBs and PBDEs) and vitamin (A and E) concentrations in reproductively active female whales. The PCB and PBDE congener pattern in mothers changed during gestation as a result of preferential transfer of light-low Log KOW congeners to the fetus. Overall, female beluga whales transferred approximately 11% of their PCB and PBDE blubber burden to their fetus. In terms of vitamins transfer, lower concentrations of tocopherols, retinol and retinyl esters were found in reproductively active females relative to males and reproductively inactive females. Metabolism was also found to be an important factor for contaminant and vitamin accumulation in beluga tissues. In a principal components analysis, PCBs clustered into metabolically-derived structure-activity groups, which separated along the first principal component according to its metabolic potential (metabolizable vs. recalcitrant). Contaminant-related up-regulation of metabolizing enzymes, including cytochrome P450, likely explained changes in the concentration and pattern of PCB and PBDE congeners, as well as hepatic, plasma, and blubber vitamin A and E. Since vitamins and lipophilic contaminants accumulated in beluga whales in the same way in relation to most biological processes, including sex, reproduction, size, condition, and feeding ecology, it was important to control and reduce the number of these confounding factors before claiming any tissue vitamin change was indeed the result of chemical exposure. In doing so, it was found that vitamin A and E homeostasis was influenced by PCBs in beluga whales, resulting in reduced hepatic storage and increased plasma and blubber concentrations. Overall, these results suggest that liver, plasma, and inner blubber vitamin A and E concentrations can be sensitive biomarkers of contaminant exposure only if major confounding effects are taken into consideration. The implications of altered vitamin dynamics on the health of beluga whales is unknown at this time; however, as Arctic marine mammals face continued stress related to climate change, increased human disturbance and emergence of infectious diseases, this study can serve as essential baseline data that can be used to monitor the health status of western Arctic beluga whales.
Graduate
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The first essay studies the Marginal Cost of Funds in the existence of tax evasion. We develop a general equilibrium model of tax evasion, including the expected utility of taxpayers and three different revenue-raising government policies. In this rich model environment, we analytically derive the marginal cost of funds (MCF) for the alternative policy instruments. We consider two main fiscal reforms: the revision in the nonlinear tax scheme and the changes in enforcement mechanism (the audit and penalty rates). First, we derive the MCF for the tax reform and find its key determinants. The derived MCF is greater than the previous ones since it includes a "risk-bearing cost" as well as tax distortion. The reform in enforcement mechanism generates MCFs in different forms. Two more MCFs with respect to audit and penalty rates are presented. Finally, we compare these three different MCFs in numerical example and provide some policy implications. The second essay explores optimal tax structure in the presence of status effect. When the consumption of certain goods affects one's social status, this externality creates two opposite effects in a society. Seeking higher status through “positional goods" gives individuals much incentive to supply labor but still allocates income for less “nonpositional goods" as well. In this case, differential taxes on positional goods work as corrective instruments to internalize the social cost stemming from status seeking. Furthermore, the differential taxes generate revenue that can be used to alleviate preexisting income tax distortion. Thus, the differential taxes on positional goods could give so called “double dividend." I develop a game-theoretic model in which each individual with a different labor productivity unknown to the others engages in a status-seeking game, and the government has a revenue requirement. Then I show that, under a condition in which utility is separable between positional goods and leisure, a revenue-neutral shift in the tax mix away from nonlinear income taxes towards positional-good taxes enhances welfare. Hence, the differential taxes on positional goods are necessary together with the nonlinear income taxes for an optimal tax structure. The third essay explores the impact of increasing capital mobility on regional growth and environment. I develop an endogenous growth model in which each local government competes against the others, to induce imperfectly mobile stock of capital into its region. Then I show that an increase in capital mobility generates “tax importing" due to which each locality experiences a higher growth rate and more degraded environment. That is, the increasing mobility dampens the capital tax and transfers the burden of pollution abatement to the locality. This finding supports the hypothesis of “race to the bottom" in environmental standards. Identifying a reduction in overall welfare of residents, I consider two alternative federal interventions in the model: uniform environmental standard and requirement of lump sum transfer or tax. Both of these federal instruments enhance the residents' welfare.
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Dissertação de Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia do Ambiente apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra
A fim de implementar um sistema de transporte mais sustentável e justo, que é um elementochave da política comum de transportes, os custos associados às externalidades do sector dos transportes, p.e. poluição atmosférica, devem ser internalizados na economia. Para tal é fundamental que os custos externos sejam estimados. O objetivo desta dissertação de mestrado é estimar os custos externos da poluição atmosférica do sector dos transportes rodoviários, com foco em veículos pesados de mercadorias, sendo ainda necessário para este fim estimar as emissões associadas à poluição atmosférica. Com base em abordagens atualmente disponíveis, selecionadas a partir de uma revisão da literatura, a metodologia proposta na Diretiva Eurovinheta foi utilizada para quantificar os custos externos da poluição do ar e a metodologia ARTEMIS foi utilizada para quantificar os fatores de emissão de NOx e PM. Aplicaram-se estas metodologias a uma área de estudo, no Distrito de Coimbra, utilizando informações sobre velocidade média de circulação, inclinação de estrada, contagens de tráfego, composição da frota e distâncias percorridas. Os resultados obtidos neste trabalho fornecem informações quantitativas sobre os custos externos do transporte rodoviário, relevantes no quadro da legislação europeia no que concerne os impactes da poluição do ar e transportes sustentáveis, podendo ser úteis no processo de decisão a nível local. Os valores de custos externos obtidos variam entre 0.5 a 14 cent.km-1 por veículo, dependendo principalmente do peso, tecnologia (classe de emissão) e tipo de veículo (Articulado ou Rígido). O custo total da poluição atmosférica na área de estudo seria cerca de quatro milhões de euros por ano, tendo em conta os dados de tráfego de 2012, para a área de estudo.
In order to implement a more sustainable and fair transport system, which is a key-element of the common transport policy, the costs associated with the externalities of the transport sector, p.e. atmospheric pollution, must be internalized into the economy. In order to do so, it is fulcral that the external costs be estimated. The purpose of this Master thesis is to estimate the external costs of air pollution and emissions related derived from the road transport sector, focusing on Heavy Goods Vehicles. To this end, it is necessary to estimate the emissions associated with atmospheric pollution. Based on currently available approaches, selected from a literature review, the methodology proposed in the Eurovignette Directive was used to quantify the external costs of air pollution, and the ARTEMIS methodology was used to quantify the emission factors of NOx and PM. These methodologies were applied to a selected study area, in the district of Coimbra, by using data on the average velocity of circulation, road slope, traffic count, vehicle pool composition and travelled distance. The results obtained in this paper provide quantitative information on the external costs of road transport relevant in the framework of European legislation in what concerns air pollution impacts and sustainable transport, being potentially useful in the decision process on a national level. The obtained external costs values vary between 0.5 to 14 cent.km-1 per vehicle, depending mainly on the vehicle weight, technology (emission class) and vehicle type (articulated or rigid). The total cost of atmospheric pollution in the study area would be around four million of euros per year, when taking in account traffic data for the year of 2012, in respect to this study area

O sector marítimo e portuário é de grande importância para a economia mundial, quer pelos valores monetários movimentados quer pelos milhões de empregos que gera em todo o mundo. É um sector em que a regulamentação é de extrema importância de forma a regular e permitir que as transações comerciais se efectuem em total segurança. Está à vista de todos que acidentes envolvendo navios em que daí resulte derrame de hidrocarbonetos para o mar, é catastrófico para a economia dos países afectados. No caso concreto em estudo, o Porto de Sines, tem-se como objectivo identificar toda a regulamentação internacional, comunitária e nacional, bem como as boas práticas existentes para o sector, de forma a identificar possíveis não conformidades, analisando também as áreas onde existem apenas conjuntos de normas vagas e pouco objectivas. Este estudo realiza-se durante as operações de descarga de um navio de crude. Através de pesquisa de legislação existente nos vários organismos e entidades que regulam o sector, pesquisa de trabalhos e literatura sobre a matéria em estudo, observação directa da operações e de entrevistas efectuadas aos intervenientes no processo de descarga de um navio, permite-nos assim analisar de uma forma objectiva e directa a aplicação regulamentar. Este estudo permitiu identificar a regulamentação que é aplicada no Porto de Sines, sendo que alguma é implementada na íntegra e outra parcialmente, bem como áreas onde não existe regulamentação específica e que é de extrema importância no contexto de poluições marinhas, bem como boas práticas que não são adoptadas na totalidade, seja por condicionantes físicas do terminal ou desconhecimento dos operadores. No contexto geral os resultados obtidos mostram que existe ainda algum trabalho a realizar, essencialmente, ao nível de formação das pessoas, no que diz respeito às boas práticas que regulam as operações dos navios e do terminal, bem como na aplicação das mesmas no terminal petroleiro. No decorrer das operações de descarga de um navio de crude pode considerar-se que o interface entre o navio e o cais é adequado e as operações ocorrem sem problemas, apesar de várias não conformidades que foi possível constatar, essencialmente ao nível do terminal.
The maritime and port sector is of great importance to the world economy, either for the monetary values involved or for the millions of jobs it generates worldwide. It is a sector where regulation is extremely important in order to guarantee that business transactions are carried out in total safety. It is common knowledge that accidents involving vessels which spill oil into the sea is a catastrophe for the economies of the affected countries. This case study, the Port of Sines, has the objective of identifying all the applicable international, community and national rules, as well as the good practices for this sector, in order to identify possible non-conformities, analyzing all the areas where there are only vague an less objective regulations. This study was carried out during the operations of unloading a crude oil ship. Through the search of the existing regulations in the various agencies and entities that regulate the sector, the search of works and literature on the subject under study, direct observation of operations and interviews to the stakeholders in the process of unloading a ship, we can analyze in an objective and direct way the regulatory enforcement. This study revealed how and which is the regulation applied in the Port of Sines. There are rules fully applied and other rules only partially applied. There are also areas where there is no specific legislation and which is extremely important in the context of sea pollution and some good practices that are not fully applied, either for physical constraints or for lack of knowledge from terminal operators. In the general context, the results obtained show that there is still some work to do, essentially regarding the training of people in what concerns good practices that regulate the vessels and terminal operations as well as the application of those good practices in the oil terminal. During the unloading operations of a crude oil ship, it can be considered that the interface between the ship and the pier operations is good and that there aren't problems, despite various non-conformities, essentially at the level of the terminal.

Inadequately treated wastewater effluent is harmful to the receiving aquatic environment. Water-borne chemicals and microbial pathogens pose a health risk to anyone living downstream from sewage treatment facilities. This study assessed the effluent from a package plant with a design capacity of 48kℓ/24 hours, servicing 12 household units and a restaurant in Mogale City. Over a 12 month period, fortnightly water samples were collected from ten selected sites including two boreholes, a river and two dams. Standard parameters including physical (pH, EC, temperature, DO and SS), chemical (nutrient concentration) and biological (bacterial counts) were analysed using handheld meters, standard membrane filter techniques and colorimetric methods. One borehole was affected by pathogen and nitrate runoff from an adjacent poultry farm. If regularly monitored, the package plant effectively removed microbes (most samples contained 0 cfu/100mℓ) but above limit COD, ammonia and phosphate was released in the effluent (with maximum values of 322 mg/ℓ, 42.52 mg/ℓ and 7.18 mg/ℓ, respectively). Generally, river and dam water at the site was of good quality.
Environmental Science
M. Sc. (Environmental Science)