Manual on the Development of Cleaner Production Policies ... - Unido
Manual on the Development of Cleaner Production Policies ... - Unido
Manual on the Development of Cleaner Production Policies ... - Unido
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DEVELOPMENT OF CP POLICY<br />
MODULE 4: POLICY TOOLS AND INSTRUMENTS<br />
development. Governments can introduce policy incentives that reduce <strong>the</strong> capital cost <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> CP<br />
investment (tax credit or import tax exempti<strong>on</strong>, for example) or increase <strong>the</strong> operati<strong>on</strong>al benefits <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
CP investment (e.g. by <strong>the</strong> rati<strong>on</strong>al pricing <strong>of</strong> natural resources, envir<strong>on</strong>mental charges, lower value<br />
added tax <strong>on</strong> cleaner/more efficient products, etc.).<br />
It is important to examine carefully <strong>the</strong> way that subsidies work to ensure that that <strong>the</strong>y do not create<br />
perverse incentives for envir<strong>on</strong>mentally counterproductive behaviour. Low-interest loans are <strong>of</strong>ten<br />
available for polluti<strong>on</strong> c<strong>on</strong>trol equipment, but not for CP or technology modernizati<strong>on</strong> (<strong>the</strong> latter is<br />
c<strong>on</strong>sidered technological change and not eligible for s<strong>of</strong>t loans). This may explicitly encourage end<strong>of</strong>-pipe<br />
c<strong>on</strong>trols over process change investments.<br />
A standard ec<strong>on</strong>omic instrument such as accelerated depreciati<strong>on</strong> allowances may act as an unintended<br />
barrier to <strong>Cleaner</strong> Technology investment by favouring <strong>the</strong> retenti<strong>on</strong> <strong>of</strong> fully-depreciated assets over<br />
reinvestment. Ano<strong>the</strong>r example is that while <strong>the</strong> intent <strong>of</strong> a water polluti<strong>on</strong> charge may be to reduce<br />
polluti<strong>on</strong>, it may increase polluti<strong>on</strong> if it is based <strong>on</strong> effluent c<strong>on</strong>centrati<strong>on</strong>s.<br />
When deciding <strong>on</strong> envir<strong>on</strong>mental policy in general, and <strong>on</strong> <strong>the</strong> choice <strong>of</strong> instruments in particular, it is,<br />
<strong>the</strong>refore, crucial to c<strong>on</strong>sider potential negative impacts <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> proposed approach. Ultimately, <strong>the</strong> idea<br />
is to avoid creating distorti<strong>on</strong>s or barriers to CP through new instruments.<br />
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