India’s Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability : What Are the Tradeoffs?

Mani, Muthukumara ; Markandya, Anil ; Sagar, Aarsi ; Sahin, Sebnem

关键词: ABATEMENT;    ABATEMENT COSTS;    ABRASION;    ACID;    ACID RAIN;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6208
RP-ID  :  WPS6208

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

One of the key environmental problemsfacing India is that of particle pollution from thecombustion of fossil fuels. This has serious healthconsequences and with the rapid growth in the economy theseimpacts are increasing. At the same time, economic growth isan imperative and policy makers are concerned about thepossibility that pollution reduction measures could reducegrowth significantly. This paper addresses the tradeoffsinvolved in controlling local pollutants such as particles.Using an established Computable General Equilibrium model,it evaluates the impacts of a tax on coal or on emissions ofparticles such that these instruments result in emissionlevels that are respectively 10 percent and 30 percent lowerthan they otherwise would be in 2030. The main findings areas follows: (i) A 10 percent particulate emission reductionresults in a lower gross domestic product but the size ofthe reduction is modest; (ii) losses in gross domesticproudct from the tax are partly offset by the health gainsfrom lower particle emissions; (iii) the taxes reduceemissions of carbon dioxide by about 590 million tons in2030 in the case of the 10 percent reduction and 830 milliontons in the case of the 30 percent reduction; and (iv) takentogether, the carbon dioxide reduction and the healthbenefits are greater than the loss of gross domestic productin both cases.