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COMMENTS ON THE INTENDED DRAFT GUIDELINE FOR CONSIDERATION OF CLIMATE CHANGE IMPLICATIONS IN APPLICATIONS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL AUTHORISATIONS, ATMOSPHERIC EMISSIONS LICENSES AND WASTE MANAGEMENT LICENCES
The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), representing groundWork and Earthlife Africa, submitted comments on July 23, 2021, regarding the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment's (DFFE) draft Guideline for considering climate change implications in environmental authorisations and licenses. While welcoming the initiative, the CER argues that the draft is insufficient to address the climate crisis and fails to meet the legal requirements of the Constitution and the National Environment Management Act (NEMA). The submission advocates for a 1.5°C warming limit as the primary benchmark for emissions assessments rather than Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and calls for the inclusion of social costs of carbon and full lifecycle GHG emissions in project evaluations.
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Document type: Statement
Climate, Environmental, and Health Impacts of Fossil Fuels
This fact sheet from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) outlines the 'externalities'—climate, environmental, and health costs not reflected in market prices—associated with the fossil fuel supply chain. It details the impacts of burning coal, oil, and natural gas, including greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, and public health crises, while proposing policy mechanisms to mitigate these costs.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Fossil Fuel Subsidies: A Closer Look at Tax Breaks and Societal Costs
This fact sheet from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute examines the scale and impact of fossil fuel subsidies in the United States and globally. It details specific tax provisions and federal funding mechanisms that support the coal, oil, and natural gas industries, arguing that these subsidies are outdated and undermine climate goals. The document also analyzes the 'externalities' of fossil fuel use—societal, health, and environmental costs—that are not reflected in market prices.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Measuring the Benefits of Green Public Procurement in Canada
This report uses a system dynamics model to quantify the economic, social, and environmental impacts of Green Public Procurement (GPP) in Canada from 2016 to 2035. It analyzes four spending categories—buildings, cement, steel, and vehicles—comparing business-as-usual (BAU) scenarios against sustainable and domestic-production scenarios. The findings generally indicate that GPP reduces long-term operating costs and greenhouse gas emissions while potentially increasing domestic employment and revenue.
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Document type: Report
Sustainable Asset Valuation (SAVi) of the Contournement de Rabat, Morocco: A focus on road infrastructure
This report presents a Sustainable Asset Valuation (SAVi) assessment of the Contournement de Rabat (Rabat bypass) road project in Morocco. Using system dynamics and project finance modelling, the study evaluates the financial viability of the 41.1 km toll road across six risk scenarios and incorporates the valuation of four key externalities: discretionary spending from labour income, social cost of carbon, value of time saved, and the cost of accidents.
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Document type: Report
Peer Review of the Climate Change Study for the Proposed Thabametsi Coal Fired Power Station
This report is a peer review conducted by EOH Coastal & Environmental Services for the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) regarding the Climate Change Study and Palaeontological Impact Assessment (CCSPIA) for the proposed 1,200 MW Thabametsi Coal-Fired Power Station. The review evaluates the adequacy of the Greenhouse Gas Assessment (GGA) and the Climate Resilience Assessment (CRA), concluding that while the technical assessments are comprehensive and follow international best practices, there are discrepancies in the overall impact rating and omissions regarding the social cost of carbon.
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Document type: Report
SUBMISSIONS ON DRAFT CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ASSESSMENT REPORT FOR THABAMETSI IPP COAL-FIRED POWER STATION
The Centre for Environmental Rights, acting for Earthlife Africa Johannesburg, submitted comments on the draft Climate Change Impact Assessment (CCIA) and Palaeontological Impact Assessment (PIA) for the proposed Thabametsi coal-fired power station. The submission argues that the draft CCIA significantly underestimates greenhouse gas emissions, ignores the social cost of carbon, and fails to adequately address severe water scarcity risks in the Lephalale area. The authors contend that the project is not in the national interest due to existing excess energy capacity and that the most appropriate recommendation is a 'no go option' to avoid irreversible environmental and social harm.
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Document type: Statement
The federal coal program must end or seriously reform
Friends of the Earth argues that the U.S. federal coal leasing program is non-competitive, financially outdated, and climate-destructive. The organization calls for a halt to lease sales until reforms are enacted, including closing royalty loopholes, incorporating the social cost of carbon into pricing, and establishing public interest criteria for leases, asserting that most fossil fuel reserves must remain in the ground to avoid climate catastrophe.
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Document type: Statement
A Costly Diagnosis
This report by the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment and partners examines the health and economic costs of coal-fired electricity generation in Alberta. It details the pollutants emitted by coal plants, their specific impacts on vulnerable populations, and uses multiple modeling approaches to estimate the resulting premature deaths, illnesses, and societal costs. The report argues that the true cost of coal power is not reflected in market prices, effectively subsidizing coal at the expense of public health.
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Document type: Report
Climate Damages in the FUND Model: A Disaggregated Analysis
This research paper analyzes the treatment of climate damages within the FUND model, specifically focusing on its agricultural projections and the technical validity of its temperature-yield equations.
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Document type: Research paper
Epstein-Zin utility in DICE: Is risk aversion irrelevant to climate policy?
This research paper introduces a hybrid "EZ-DICE" model that implements Epstein-Zin recursive utility into the Dynamic Integrated Climate-Economy (DICE) model. The authors aim to separate risk aversion from time preference, a conflation present in standard expected-utility frameworks that often leads to a perverse relationship where higher risk aversion implies less concern for future outcomes.
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Document type: Research paper
Climate damages in the FUND model: A disaggregated analysis
This research paper analyzes the FUND model of climate economics, finding that its low Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) estimate of $6 is largely driven by an overestimation of agricultural benefits from CO2 fertilization and temperature increases. The authors identify several technical flaws, including a potential division-by-zero error in the optimum temperature equation and the use of implausible temperature ranges in Monte Carlo simulations. They argue that FUND relies on outdated research from the 1990s and suggest that updating the model with recent empirical data on crop yields and CO2 fertilization would significantly increase the SCC estimate.
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Document type: Research paper
Did the Stern Review underestimate U.S. and global climate damages?
This research paper by the Stockholm Environment Institute evaluates whether the Stern Review underestimated climate damages for the United States and the world. By revising parameters in the PAGE2002 model—specifically regarding adaptation, catastrophic risk, and the damage function—the authors argue that business-as-usual damages in 2100 could be significantly higher than the Stern Review's estimates, rising from 2.2 percent of global GDP to 10.8 percent.
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Document type: Research paper
Out of the Shadows: What’s Behind DEFRA’s New Approach to the Price of Carbon?
This report by the Stockholm Environment Institute critiques the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) for its 2007 approach to setting the shadow price of carbon (SPC). The authors argue that DEFRA's methodology is fundamentally flawed because it bases the carbon price on an assumed optimistic future stabilization trajectory rather than current emissions trends, resulting in a price that is too low to incentivize necessary abatement.
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Document type: Report
Application d’une Évaluation des Actifs Durables (SAVi) Pour la Voie de Contournement de Rabat au Maroc: Gros plan sur les infrastructures routières
This case study describes the application of the Sustainable Asset Valuation (SAVi) methodology to the Rabat bypass road project in Morocco. The analysis, conducted by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) for Autoroutes du Maroc (ADM), evaluates the financial impact of operational risks and external factors—such as CO2 emissions and accident costs—that are typically omitted from conventional financial analyses.
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Document type: Case study
Sustainable Asset Valuation (SAVi) Assessment of the N’Diaye Wind Farm, Senegal
This fact sheet presents a Sustainable Asset Valuation (SAVi) assessment of the N’Diaye wind farm in Senegal. The analysis compares the wind project's costs, risks, and externalities against coal-fired and heavy fuel oil (HFO)-fired electricity generation to determine their relative societal value and financial performance under different climate and risk scenarios.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Minnesotans would save up to $91 billion from climate-smart transportation
This document outlines the methodology used by RMI to estimate the economic and health benefits of reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) and decarbonizing surface transportation in Minnesota. The analysis compares 'business-as-usual' scenarios against targets for VMT reduction and net-zero emissions by 2050.
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Document type: Report
SCC white paper 4_1_2010 SEI
This white paper by the Stockholm Environment Institute critiques the U.S. government's use of the 'social cost of carbon' (SCC) to guide climate regulations. The authors argue that the administration's 'central' estimate of $21 per ton of CO2 is dangerously low due to a reliance on flawed economic models, inappropriately high discount rates, and the omission of catastrophic climate risks. They advocate for a shift toward science-based targets and cost-effectiveness analysis rather than narrow cost-benefit calculations.
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Document type: Report
More than Meets the Eye
This policy brief examines the calculation and application of the social cost of carbon (SCC) within the U.S. federal government's regulatory process, highlighting the role of economic assumptions and the impact of different SCC values on the stringency of climate regulations.
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Document type: Policy brief
The Time Value of Carbon and Carbon Storage
This working paper examines the value of temporary carbon storage and its impact on greenhouse gas accounting and biological offsets, utilizing social cost of carbon estimates from a 2010 U.S. government interagency working group.
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Document type: Research paper