Increased Greenhouse Gas Emissions:
Policy Pressures and Policy Options

The policy pressures that contribute to the environmental problems associated with greenhouse gas emissions include

- Economies of scale that encourage the use of a large volume of inputs leading to a large volume of outputs including greenhouse gas emissions
- Inappropriate input and output pricing policies including income support schemes and subsidies
- Inappropriate or non-existent regulatory policies that fail to respect local natural resource management and environmental needs
- Inappropriate financial policies for various inputs, exchange rate and import/export policies

Policy options that can lessen the risk of greenhouse gas emissions in these systems are

- Environmental regulation:
a wide range of both international and domestic policy and market mechanism strategies are available:

- International collaborative policies include emission trading mechanisms, compensatory financing, carbon taxes, preferential technology transfer, the creation of carbon sinks and joint implementation
- Domestic policy options include carbon and energy taxes, limiting or banning the use of certain highly polluting fossil fuels and improvements in the management of GHG emissions based on the principle of the polluter pays
- Improvements in emissions management - the polluter pays
- Banning or limiting the use of greenhouse gas emitting inputs e.g. certain fuels
- Regulatory policies to reduce level of emissions including safe minimum standards
- Emission trading mechanisms

- Development and introduction of Good Management Practices (GMP)
- Adapting pricing, subsidy and taxation policies to ensure recovery of full cost of goods and services
- Investment incentives/transitional subsidies to encourage improvements in infrastructure to reduce emissions and encourage producers and processors to move quickly to new minimum standards
- Encouragement of R & D to reduce the level of greenhouse gas emissions

See Also:

Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Fossil Fuels and Taxes
Greenhouse Gas Emissions

> > [Livestock & Environment Toolbox Home]