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113 results
Full Cost Accounting for Agriculture – Final Report
The report introduces the Impact Pathways Framework to quantify the public benefits of agricultural Beneficial Management Practices (BMPs). Using the South Tobacco Creek (STC) watershed in Manitoba as a case study, the authors analyze three specific BMPs: zero-till, forage conversion (permanent cover), and small multi-purpose dams. The study calculates the non-market value of these practices by linking biophysical impact modes—such as phosphorus and sediment reduction and greenhouse gas mitigation—to economic valuation methods, primarily avoided cost and benefit transfer. The findings suggest that these BMPs provide significant public benefits that exceed their implementation costs, supporting the rationale for government funding of such practices to improve water quality and climate outcomes.
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Document type: Report
Pimachiowin Aki World Heritage Project Area Ecosystem Services Valuation Assessment
The assessment calculates a conservative annual economic value of CDN$121.35 to $130.30 million for the Pimachiowin Aki area, with fishing, water treatment, and carbon sequestration as the primary contributors. It distinguishes between values for resident and non-resident populations and highlights that the ecosystem benefits are approximately 28 times greater than the estimated public expenditures for conservation.
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Document type: Report
Coastal Capital
This report by the World Resources Institute establishes a tiered methodology to estimate the economic value of coral reefs in the Caribbean, focusing on three key services: tourism and recreation, fisheries, and shoreline protection. Applying this tool to Tobago and St. Lucia, the study finds that coral reef-associated tourism provides the highest economic impact, contributing approximately 15% of GDP in Tobago and 11% in St. Lucia. Shoreline protection is also highly valued, with annual potentially avoided damages estimated between US$18–33 million for Tobago and US$28–50 million for St. Lucia. While reef-associated fisheries have a smaller direct financial impact, they provide critical social safety nets and cultural value. The report argues that quantifying these benefits is essential for informed coastal management and policy decisions, particularly in the face of threats from overfishing, pollution, and climate change.
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Document type: Report
An Ecosystem Services Assessment of the Lake Winnipeg Watershed Phase 1 Report
The report applies an Integrated Management of Environmental Assets (IMEA) approach to evaluate the economic value of ecosystem services in southern Manitoba. It compares the current landscape, dominated by agriculture, with three reconstructed pre-settlement scenarios. The analysis finds that restoring natural environments, particularly forests and wetlands, could significantly increase annual ecosystem service values and provide cost-effective alternatives to hard infrastructure for water purification and climate regulation. The study highlights that nonpoint nutrient loading from agricultural runoff is a primary driver of Lake Winnipeg's eutrophication and argues that a balance between productive and natural landscapes is essential for the lake's health.
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Document type: Report
Pimachiowin Aki World Heritage Project Area Ecosystem Services Valuation Assessment
The assessment estimates the annual monetary value of ecosystem services in the Pimachiowin Aki area, including carbon sequestration, air filtration, and water pollutant removal, to demonstrate that the site's natural value exceeds current economic activity levels.
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Document type: Executive summary
Valuation of Renewable and Distributed Resources: Implications for the Integrated Resource Planning Process
The document argues that traditional integrated resource planning (IRP) is too generation-centric and fails to account for the specific operational, financial, and grid-side benefits of distributed and renewable energy. It introduces the Energy Resource Investment Strategy (ERIS) methodology, which uses probabilistic load and fuel forecasting and portfolio theory to value these resources. Key technical discussions include the use of Effective Load Carrying Capability (ELCC) to measure reliability contributions, the role of geographical dispersion in reducing portfolio variability, and the financial advantages of modular, short-lead-time resources in mitigating the risk of overbuilding capacity.
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Document type: Report
The Health Risks of Construction Pollution in California
The report finds that diesel construction equipment in California causes over 1,100 premature deaths and more than $9 billion in annual public health costs. It identifies excavators, tractors/loaders/backhoes, and crawler tractors as the highest polluters and highlights the South Coast air basin as the most affected region. The authors advocate for a regulatory regime to retire old equipment and install retrofit technologies to reduce particulate matter and nitrogen oxides.
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Document type: Report
Full Cost Accounting for Agriculture – Year 2 Report
The report establishes a four-stage 'Impact Pathway' approach—comprising pathway constituent, transport, impact, and valuation models—to quantify environmental externalities in Canadian agriculture. Testing this framework on five indicators (water erosion, phosphorus contamination, GHG emissions, energy efficiency, and wildlife habitat) reveals that while valuation methods are generally well-established, significant data and methodological gaps exist in 'transport modelling' for water-related indicators. The report suggests that watershed-level analysis is the most effective unit for these valuations and proposes integrating these findings into macro-level economic models like CRAM and LUAM.
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Document type: Report
Diesel and Health in America
The report estimates that diesel fine particle pollution causes approximately 21,000 premature deaths annually in the U.S., with significant risks of lung cancer, heart attacks, and asthma. It argues that while EPA regulations for new engines starting in 2007 are positive, the long lifespan of existing diesel vehicles (nearly 30 years) necessitates immediate retrofit actions. The document proposes a reduction target of 50% by 2010, 75% by 2015, and 85% by 2020, which could save nearly 100,000 lives by 2030. Recommended solutions include diesel particulate filters (DPF), Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD), and anti-idling ordinances.
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Document type: Report
Dirty Power
The report documents that fine particle pollution from U.S. power plants causes nearly 24,000 premature deaths annually, including 2,800 from lung cancer, and 38,200 non-fatal heart attacks. It argues that the Bush administration's 'Clear Skies' proposal is insufficient compared to the Clean Air Act or the more stringent Jeffords bill, which could avoid 22,000 deaths per year. The analysis highlights that elderly populations, children, and communities of color—particularly in the Midwest and Southwest—are disproportionately affected.
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Document type: Report
Power Plant Emissions: Particulate Matter-Related Health Damages and the Benefits of Alternative Emission Reduction Scenarios
This report analyzes the health impacts of various US power plant emission reduction policies, comparing the Clear Skies Act (CSA) with the Carper Bill, Jeffords Bill, and an EPA Straw Proposal. Using the REMSAD air quality model and BenMAP health analysis tool, the study quantifies avoidable cases of premature mortality, chronic bronchitis, heart attacks, and respiratory/cardiovascular hospitalizations. The findings indicate that the Jeffords Bill provides the highest health benefits in both 2010 and 2020, while the CSA provides the lowest among the policy options. The report also includes a 'No EGU' scenario to establish the total health footprint of coal-fired electricity generating units.
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Document type: Report
The Full Costs of Thermal Power Production in Eastern Canada
The report applies a full cost accounting (FCA) approach to quantify the externalities of thermal power production in Eastern Canada, focusing on air pollution (SOx, NOx, VOC) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It finds that coal-fired power generates the highest externalities, with central estimates of $0.0394/kWh, which exceeds its marginal production cost of approximately $0.026/kWh. The study argues that internalizing these costs would shift investment toward natural gas, demand-side management, and renewable energy, and warns that Canada's Kyoto compliance strategy may forego domestic health co-benefits by favoring international emission credits over domestic reductions.
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Document type: Report
Deaths by Dirty Diesel Map: Health Impacts Methodology
The Clean Air Task Force (CATF) used the U.S. EPA's CO-Benefits Risk Assessment (COBRA) version 4.0 to model the health effects of 2023 diesel emissions from highway and off-highway sectors. The methodology employs a damage function approach to translate emissions of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide into premature mortality, hospital admissions, and economic costs. For 2023, the model estimated premature deaths from diesel exhaust to be between 3,900 and 8,800, a decrease from the 2016 range of 6,300 to 14,200. Additionally, using a 2015 California Air Resources Board risk factor, CATF estimated that 2023 diesel particulate concentrations of 0.26 ug/m3 result in a national risk of 228 lifetime cancers per million people, totaling nearly 80,000 cancer cases.
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Document type: Report
Health impacts of Eskomʼs non-compliance with minimum emissions standards
The report finds that Eskom's current retrofit plan is insufficient to address sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions, leading to significant projected mortality and economic losses. Full compliance with the MES by 2025 would avoid approximately 2,300 deaths and R42 billion in economic costs annually. The most stringent scenario, applying Best Available Technology (BAT), would reduce health impacts by over 90% by 2031 compared to the current plan.
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Document type: Report
Air Quality, Health, and Economic Impacts of a New Coal Mine and Power Plant in Lephalale
The report finds that the proposed Lephalale Coal Mine (LCM) and its power plant will cause significant air quality violations and severe health and economic burdens. It argues that a previous environmental impact assessment (EIA) by GESI (2017) underestimated these impacts by neglecting mercury, existing pollution sources, and secondary PM2.5 formation. The analysis indicates that while mining alone causes 93 premature deaths, burning the coal on-site increases this to 3,120 deaths, and burning it at existing plants like Medupi or Matimba could lead to up to 41,984 premature deaths. Mercury emissions are projected to cause a loss of 3,700 IQ points and 554 lives, with significant deposition in protected ecosystems like the Waterberg Biosphere Reserve.
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Document type: Report
Technical Background – Part I
The document details a technical framework for climate impact assessments in British Columbia, focusing on the selection of General Circulation Models (GCMs) and the quantification of heat-related health and labour risks. It establishes a process for downscaling climate data to 111 population centres and applies exposure-response functions to estimate unexpected deaths, hospitalisations, and lost labour hours. The text also outlines several proactive adaptation scenarios—including increased air conditioning adoption, window shading, urban planning, and shifted work hours—and the economic metrics used to conduct cost-benefit analyses for these interventions.
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Document type: Research paper
A Sustainable Asset Valuation of the Mass Rapid Transit System in Bogota, Colombia
The SAVi assessment of Bogota's Metro Line 1 indicates that the project will provide significant monetary benefits and environmental improvements, including a reduction of 938,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions by 2049. While traditional benefit-cost ratios (BCR) are low (0.4 to 0.6), the sustainable BCR (S-BCR) is substantially higher (1.5 to 1.9) when accounting for societal benefits such as increased retail revenues, health improvements, and avoided costs. The project, costing USD 5 billion, is expected to be operational by 2028 and will be 100% electric.
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Document type: Executive summary
The Benefits of a Net-Zero Transport Strategy to Stimulate Sustainable Mobility in Indonesia
The report evaluates three mobility scenarios for Indonesia using the Sustainable Asset Valuation (SAVi) methodology. Scenario 1 focuses on public transport and non-motorized transport; Scenario 2 focuses on private vehicle electrification; and Scenario 3 combines both. While Scenario 2 offers the highest benefit-cost ratio (BCR) due to lower investment costs, Scenario 3 provides the greatest overall societal benefit, with cumulative discounted benefits of USD 450.1 billion by 2050 and a societal BCR of 4.93. The analysis emphasizes that decarbonizing the energy supply is essential for transport decarbonization and that integrating health and safety externalities into cost-benefit analyses reveals the true investment worthiness of sustainable transport.
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Document type: Executive summary
An Application of the Sustainable Asset Valuation (SAVi) Methodology to Pelly's Lake and Stephenfield Reservoir, Manitoba, Canada
The SAVi assessment demonstrates that natural and nature-based infrastructure in Manitoba provide high economic value and cost-effective alternatives to built assets. For Stephenfield Reservoir, the cumulative discounted value of agriculture-related services is CAD 6.07 billion by 2050, while replacing it with grey infrastructure would require CAD 5.3 million in capital costs. Pelly's Lake provides cumulative discounted ecosystem services valued at approximately CAD 60 million between 2019 and 2050, primarily driven by nutrient removal and carbon sequestration.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Sustainable Asset Valuation (SAVi) of Senegal’s Saloum Delta
The report applies the SAVi simulation service to the Saloum Delta in Senegal, quantifying the monetary value of its wetlands and mangroves. It assesses the economic trade-offs between business-as-usual trends, infrastructure development (roads and oil extraction), and conservation efforts (organic agriculture, mangrove reforestation, and solar cookstoves). The analysis provides a baseline for policy-makers and investors to design conservation finance solutions and sustainable development strategies.
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Document type: Fact sheet