6,576 research outputs found
Compound Terra Plastik ka Mela: repair, recycling, and restoration: an interactive exhibition of social and environmental works
No full textCompound Terra Plastik ka Mela: Repair, Recycling, and Restoration: an interactive exhibition of social and environmental works from Compound 13 Lab, Maharashtra Nature Park, Dharavi, Mumbai, India, 10th April - 13th April 2023.Participating Artists: Mamoni Chitrakar / Parasher Baruah / Ian Dawson / Graham Jeffery / Subuhi Jiwani / Amol Lalzare / Ben Parry / Abhijeet Patro / Sharmila Samant / Aqui Thami / Rahul KohlCompound 13 Lab is situated close to one of Mumbai’s main recycling hubs, where each week thousands of tons of hard waste are sorted, cleaned, and processed. Tens of thousands of people work in this industry: they make a huge contribution as unrecognised ‘green collar workers’ to cutting the amount of waste that goes to landfill and incineration, and reducing the region’s carbon footprint. Compound 13 Lab, hosted by ACORN India, explores livelihoods and alternative futures, working closely with people engaged in repair and recycling work across the neighbourhood. At the Lab, knowledge and learning is shared through art, design, music, media and citizen science. This exhibition brings together a series of works made by artists, filmmakers and designers who have been collaborating with young people, workers and families from Dharavi over the last six years. Dawson has been collaborating with the Compound 13 Lab for three years and presented his ongoing printing and portrait workshops. At the centre of the space Dawson, Parry and members from the Lab recreated a section of the Carter Road Mangroves to demonstrate the entangled relationships at work within the city. Dawson also exhibited works from his collaboration between the Compound 13 Lab and The Horniman Museum London. Presented by Compound 13 Lab in association with ACORN India, Bath School of Art, Film and Media, Bath Spa University, the Museum for the United Nations’ GLOBAL WE project, and the Protracted Crisis Research Centre at the University of the West of Scotland. Supported by the British Academy through the UK Government’s Global Challenges Research Fund
WASTEWORK: Group Exhibition curated by Ian Dawson
No full textWASTEWORK, curated by Ian Dawson, The Winchester Gallery, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, 6th March –15th April 2023Participating Artists : John Walter, Donna Mitchell, Jasone Miranda Bilbao, Compound 13 Lab, Ian Dawson, Aqui Thami, Louisa Minkin, Sharmila Samant, Migueltzinta Solis,, Andrea Mason, Ben Parry, Amanda Jobson, Marie-Louise Jones, Erika Trotzig, Jefford Horrigan, Mario Rossi, Mia Taylor, Stephen Cornford, Ali Eales and the Trinity Art Group, Dave GibbonsWASTEWORK is the third and final iteration of an exhibition which began as The Waste Makers on Cornucopia Street at Newhaven ArtSpace in 2022 before travelling to The Lethaby Gallery at Central Saint Martins, London. All three exhibitions explore waste and how we might interpret, rework and re-examine it. How do we arrive at waste? Is it matter out of place? What is the difference between dirt and waste? And what might digital waste be? Focusing on restoration and rehabilitation the show presents diverse artworks from North America, India and the UK, representing the globalised nature of waste. The work from Compound 13 lab, for example, has been made inside the informal settlement of Dharavi, Mumbai, which recycles 80% of Mumbai's plastic. Curated by Ian Dawson, the exhibition continues to accrue new works and takes on new configurations in each space exploring how longstanding artistic practices such as collage and assemblage can glean new perspectives on waste-studies and the politics of disposability. WASTEWORK became a fulcrum for a series of events and workshops. The exhibition hosted a series of workshops by Ali Eales and The Trinity Art Group, who created works in response to the artists in the show; installing their own works in a set of weekly 'takeovers' of the show. Dr. Ben Parry and Professor Graham Jeffrey, founders of the Compound 13 Lab, and Marie-Louise Jones delivered talks to the Sustainability Forum which launched on the opening day of the exhibition. Winchester School of Art Student's led by Departmental Head Louise Siddens created a series of works which were also spliced into the exhibition during its tenure in the Gallery. The exhibition closed with a 3-Day 'Playing with Climate Crisis' Games event which launched Daybreak, a cooperative board game co-designed by Matt Leacock, the creator of Pandemic, and Matteo Menapace. With contributions by Paul Wake and Chloe Germaine (Carbon City Zero, Hacking ECO-games), Laurie Blake (Earth Rising), Sabine Harrer (Kyoto), Heiko Günther and Tobias Gohrbandt (Peak Oil, Peak Oil Profiteer), Hwa Young Jung (PTown Bay MMXXX) and Sam Levac-Levey (Solutions)The exhibition was hosted by Winchester School of Art's Materials Lab
Are Emissions Permits Regressive?
No full textGrandfathered emissions permits redistribute income to wealthy households by creating firm rents that ultimately accrue to shareholders. Consequently, they can be highly regressive, even if the poor do not have large budget shares for polluting goods. Using an analytical model, this paper estimates the burden borne by different income groups when emissions permits are used to control power plant emissions of carbon, SO2, and NOx. We also compare the burden borne by poor households under permits with that under emissions taxes, performance standards, technology mandates, and input taxes. And we show how the social costs of policies differ from efficiency costs when society has aversion to inequality.equity effects; pollution controls; emissions permits; social welfare function
On the Implications of Technological Innovation for Environmental Policy
No full textThis paper draws on a number of recent studies to shed light on several policy issues raised by the impact of environmental policies on technological innovation. First, to what extent does induced innovation raise the overall net benefits to society from environmental policies? Second, how does induced innovation affect the appropriate choice among alternative environmental policy instruments? Third, how does it affect the optimal stringency of environmental regulations? Fourth, should environmental policies be supplemented with additional policies to promote innovation, such as research contracts or prizes for new technologies?environment, technological innovation, pollution control, instrument choice
Comparing the Marginal Excess Burden of Labor, Gasoline, Cigarette and Alcohol Taxes: An Application to the United Kingdom
No full textThis paper develops an analytical framework for estimating the marginal excess burden (MEB) of taxes on labor, gasoline, cigarettes and alcohol, allowing for externalities and interactions between the different taxes. The formulas are estimated using plausible parameter values for the United Kingdom. Given the uncertainty over various elasticities and external damages, we obtain wide ranges of possible outcomes for the MEBs. By performing Monte Carlo simulations, however, we can assess the likelihood that the MEB of one tax exceeds that of other taxes. We find that the MEB of labor taxes lies between 0.18 and 0.34 with 80% probability for tax increases used to finance transfer spending. The MEB for the gasoline tax is much larger: it is more than double that of the labor tax in 75% of our simulations and more than treble in 51%. Similar results apply for the cigarette tax. Even though these goods are relatively weak leisure substitutes, this is more than offset by large incremental welfare losses in the commodity markets, because the commodity tax rates are substantially higher than estimated marginal external damages in most of our scenarios. In contrast, our central estimate for the MEB of alcohol taxes is similar to that for labor taxes, because the alcohol tax is much closer to our assumed values for marginal external costs. But the MEB is still positive, even in scenarios when the alcohol tax is below marginal external damages, due to the impact of the tax on exacerbating the labor market distortion. When additional government spending is on public goods rather than transfers, the MEB is significantly lower for the labor tax but less so for commodity taxes. In the United Kingdom context, our results suggest the possibility of significant social welfare gains from tax reforms that shift some of the burden of taxation off gasoline and cigarettes and onto labor. The methodology could be readily extended and applied to tax systems in other countries.welfare cost, labor tax, cigarette tax, alcohol tax, gasoline tax, externalities
Is Pay-As-You-Drive Insurance a Better Way to Reduce Gasoline than Gasoline Taxes?
No full textGasoline taxes are widely perceived as the most efficient instrument for reducing gasoline consumption because they exploit all behavioral responses for reducing fuel use, including reduced driving and improved fuel economy. At present, however, higher fuel taxes are viewed as a political nonstarter. Pay-as-you-drive (PAYD) auto insurance, which involves replacing existing lump-sum premiums with premiums that vary in proportion to miles driven, should be more practical, since they do not raise driving costs for the average motorist. We show that when impacts on a broad range of motor vehicle externalities are considered, PAYD also induces significantly higher welfare gains than comparable gasoline tax increases, for fuel reductions below 9%. The reason is that under PAYD, all of the reduction in fuel use, rather than just a fraction, comes from reduced driving; this produces a substantial additional efficiency gain because mileage-related external costs (especially congestion and accidents) are relatively large in magnitude.gasoline tax; pay-as-you-drive insurance; mileage tax; welfare effects; motor vehicle externality
Early Emissions Reduction Programs: An Application to CO2 Policy
No full textIn the wake of the December 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which, if implemented, would oblige the United States and other industrialized countries to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) by 2008–2012, a number of proposals have been offered to increase the incentives for reducing emissions over the nearer term. The existence of an interim period between setting and implementing environmental goals is ubiquitous in environmental policymaking. The existence of this interim period gives rise to several potential rationales for early emissions reductions. In this paper we use a series of simple models and numerical illustrations to analyze some aspects of the performance of early emissions reduction programs in the case of GHGs. We show that there is a compelling economic case for allowing early GHGs reduction credits if countries (not just individual firms) could bank early credits to offset future emissions. The annualized cost savings to the United States from spreading out abatement over time could easily amount to several billion dollars. But without the aggregate banking provision, such credits could easily generate an excessive amount of abatement and produce net economic losses. We analyze a number of other issues that affect the economic efficiency of early reduction credits, including asymmetric information, learning-by-doing (LBD), and fiscal impacts. We also compare the performance of an early reduction credits program with that of an early cap-and-trade program. This latter approach, if properly scaled, can avoid many of the problems associated with early reduction credits.
Comparing the Efficiency of Alternative Policies for Reducing Traffic Congestion
No full textThis paper compares the efficiency of a single lane toll, a congestion tax applied uniformly across freeway lanes, a gasoline tax, and a transit fare subsidy at reducing traffic congestion. The model incorporates a variety of conditions required to reach an efficient outcome. These include conditions for the efficient allocation of travel among competing modes, travel at peak versus off-peak periods, and drivers with high and low time costs sorted onto faster and slower freeway lanes. Each policy violates some or all of the efficiency conditions. Under wide parameter scenarios, the single lane toll, gasoline tax, and transit subsidy forgo at least two thirds of the efficiency gains under an "ideal" congestion tax that varies across lanes. In contrast, the uniform congestion tax can achieve more than 90 percent of the efficiency gains, despite failing to separate out drivers with high and low time costs onto different freeway lanes.
Reforming the Tax System to Promote Environmental Objectives: An Application to Mauritius
No full textFiscal instruments are potentially among the most effective, and cost-effective, options for addressing externalities related to poor air quality, urban road congestion, and greenhouse gases. This paper takes a case study, focused on Mauritius (a pioneer in the use of green taxes) to illustrate how existing taxes, especially on fuels and vehicles, could be reformed to better address these externalities. We discuss, in particular, an explicit carbon tax; a variety of options for reforming vehicle taxes to meet environmental, equity, and revenue objectives; and a progressive transition to usage-based vehicle taxes to address congestion.Mauritius, green taxes, global warming, congestion, vehicle taxes
Comparing Alternative Policies to Reduce Traffic Accidents
No full textThis paper derives and implements formulas for the welfare effects of differentiated and uniform mileage taxes, gasoline taxes, and per mile insurance premiums, for reducing the external costs of passenger vehicle accidents. The model distinguishes three driver groups and five vehicle groups, and we obtain estimates of external accident costs per mile for each group from crash data. The (average) external accident cost is estimated at 2.2-6.6 cents per mile. Accidents costs differ substantially across drivers of different ages, but only moderately across different vehicles groups. Annual welfare gains from a mileage tax differentiated across drivers and vehicles according to marginal external costs are $9.4 billion in the benchmark case. The uniform mileage tax and per-mile insurance reform can achieve 76% and 65% of this welfare gain, respectively, while the gasoline tax can achieve only 28% of the welfare gain. Unlike other policies, the gasoline tax induces costly improvements in average fleet fuel economy that have little effect on reducing external costs.traffic accidents; external costs; pricing policies; insurance reform
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