China's unconventional nationwide CO2 emissions trading system: Cost-effectiveness and distributional impacts

Submitted by Hang Yin on

China is implementing what is expected to become the world's largest CO2 emissions trading system. To reduce emissions, the nation employs a tradable performance standard (TPS), a rate-based instrument differing significantly from cap&trade (C&T) and a carbon tax, emissions pricing instruments used elsewhere. With matching analytically and numerically solved models, we assess the cost-effectiveness and distributional impacts of China's TPS for reducing CO2 emissions from the power sector.

Carbon Pricing, Policy Design

Scaling smallholder tree cover restoration across the tropics

Submitted by Hang Yin on

Restoring tree cover in tropical countries has the potential to benefit millions of smallholders through improvements
in income and environmental services. However, despite their dominant landholding shares in many
countries, smallholders’ role in restoration has not been addressed in prior global or pan-tropical restoration
studies. We fill this lacuna by using global spatial data on trees and people, national indicators of enabling
conditions, and micro-level expert information. We find that by 2050, low-cost restoration is feasible within 280,

Forestry

La agenda ambiental como parte del modelo económico de Colombia

Submitted by Manuela Fonseca on

Colombia cuenta con un capital natural enorme, derivado de su riqueza en diversidad biológica, sobre el cual puede generar nuevas oportunidades de progreso e inclusión económica. Al mismo tiempo, el país enfrenta retos ambientales muy importantes asociados a sus profundas desigualdades, debilidad institucional para cumplir sus compromisos internacionales, y para cumplir el mandato de la Constitución de 1991, una de las  cartas más verdes de tiempos recientes.

Agriculture, Air Quality, Climate Change, Conservation, Fisheries

The short-term impact of air pollution on medical expenditures: Evidence from Beijing

Submitted by Hang Yin on

We identify the short-term effects of PM2.5 concentrations on medical costs in Beijing by analyzing two datasets: one detailing daily air quality indexes over a four-year period and the other containing individual-level records of all health care visits and medical transactions that occurred under a government insurance program that covers most city residents. We find that both higher levels of air pollution and longer-lasting pollution episodes significantly increase health care visits and medical expenditures.

Air Quality, Health, Policy Design