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Dept of the Environment

Answer

Mr. John Marshall: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what assessment he has made of the cost of incremental damage per tonne emitted of (a) benzene, (b) 1.3 butadiene, (c) carbon monoxide and (d) carbon dioxide. [17122] Mr. Clappison: (a) Benzene, (b) 1.3 butadiene and (c) carbon monoxide are three of the air pollutants covered by the forthcoming UK national air quality strategy. No robust data are currently available for computing, in precise terms, the incremental damage per tonne emitted for each of the three pollutants. There has been much less work by academics on these three pollutants than for other pollutants such as sulphur dioxide and fine particles. However, a programme of work is being put in place to improve on the current information on costs and benefits, including information on incremental damage costs per tonne of pollutant emitted, for the first review of the national air quality strategy in 1999. On (d) carbon dioxide, the UK has taken a very active part in the work of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. At the end of 1995, the report of the IPCC working group three was published, which reviewed and consolidated all the relevant literature on the economic and social dimensions of climate change. The marginal or incremental damages per tonne of CO2 emitted were estimated to lie between US $5 and US $125. This range of marginal damage estimate is associated with an aggregated monetised damage due to climate change of 1.5 to 2.0 per cent. of world gross national product. There will be future work to refine these estimates.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

17122; 291 c151-2W

Session

1996-97

Subjects

Carbon monoxide Air pollution Carbon dioxide Benzene Butadiene

Contains statistics

Yes