Energy Subsidy Reform Assessment Framework : Local Environmental Externalities Due to Energy Price Subsidies — A Focus on Air Pollution and Health
This note aims to provide an overview and guidance on the use of tools to assess the environmental and health effects of changes in the levels of fine particulate matter caused by higher consumption of energy due to subsidized prices at the country...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/677081531112268818/Local-Environmental-Externalities-due-to-Energy-Price-Subsidies-A-Focus-on-Air-Pollution-and-Health-Energy-Subsidy-Reform-Assessment-Framework-ESRAF-Good-Practice-Note-8 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30258 |
| Summary: | This note aims to provide an overview
and guidance on the use of tools to assess the environmental
and health effects of changes in the levels of fine
particulate matter caused by higher consumption of energy
due to subsidized prices at the country level. It also
provides information to help practitioners develop reliable
estimates even in the absence of data and with limited
resources. The topic of the note is highly complex and
involves multiple fields and disciplines. The note attempts
to reduce such complexity by breaking the assessment down
into several distinct steps, each with its own
methodologies. The note is intended to serve as a source of
resources and practical advice to guide practitioners along
each of these steps. This note focuses the analysis of price
subsidies on primary and secondary fine particulate matter
(PM2.5, atmospheric particulate matter with a diameter of
less than 2.5 microns), the pollutant with the largest
health effects worldwide, and using intake fractions to
estimate population exposure to PM2.5 from fossil fuels and
solid biomass. This approach is like that of recent global
studies of energy price subsidies and taxes. The intake
fractions are combined with the relative-risk functions for
major health outcomes of air pollution from the Global
Burden of Disease study to estimate the health effects
associated with energy price subsidies. The note proposes
three geographic-demographic scales: urban areas with a
population over 100,000, urban areas with a population less
than 100,000, and rural areas. The note also discusses the
availability of monitoring measurement data and alternative
options for determining ambient PM2.5 concentrations at the
proposed geographic-demographic scale, as well as approaches
to deal with data scarcity. The method for estimating the
economic value of mortality caused by air pollution follows
a recent World Bank report, using a cross-country transfer
method of the value of statistical life (VSL). In addition,
the note proposes methods for incorporating valuation of
increased illness, although morbidity is generally found to
constitute a relatively minor share of the health costs of
air pollution. |
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