Pollution: Emission and Control

Abstract

Pollution control has become a much more salient planning issue in the 1990s, with an emphasis on a greater variety of pollutants: not just smoke and toxic emissions but also those which cause acid rain and contribute to global warming. At the same time, there has been a resurgence of interest in fiscal instruments, such as pollution taxes, to replace or at least supplement pollution standards. Accepting the case for such taxes involves a commitment to a particular economic approach, based on the concept of market failure. As this chapter sets out, this is only one way to approach the environmental problem of pollution.