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One of these is carbon dioxide, a common part of the exhaust from cars and trucks. Greenhouse gases cause global warming by trapping heat from the Sun in the Earth’s atmosphere. The increase in greenhouses gases is the cause of most of the global warming that happened over the past century. Scientists predict that much more warming will likely happen during the next century. Greenhouse gases stay in the atmosphere for years and cause warming around the world. Computer models indicate that, worldwide, the tiny aerosols cause about half as much cooling as greenhouse gases cause warming. Government problems 1. Health care expenditures The health effects caused by air pollutants may range from subtle biochemical and physiological changes to difficulty breathing,aggravation of existing respiratory and cardiac conditions. In addition, these effects can result in increased government medication spending due to higher use of actor or emergency room visits and hospital admissions. Most of government supports often go to the poor who live in squatter settlements and more suffer from ill health due to less access to health care and lower living standards. 2.
Ineffective implementation of environment policy and legislation There are several reasons resulting less effective air pollution controls. 1 . The inability of democratic industrial nation-states to reduce environ mental degradation results from compromising environmental health in the interests of capital accumulation by regulating rather than eliminating environmentally destructive behaviors. . In developing country like Thailand, overlaps in administrative jurisdiction occur as the Thai government has attempted to introduce some measure of coordination by establishing multi-representational committees or boards. . Channels of communication with provincial governments are difficult to maintain, especially in the more remote regions. 4. Administrative policies lack continuity due to frequently changing governments, and these results in a lack of a consistent environmental policy. 3. Subsidies for pollution control Subsidies of interest involve financial support by the government of activities believed to be environmentally friendly, including grants, low- interest loans, favorable tax treatment, and procurement mandates for products believed to have environmental advantages such as natural gas vehicles (Nags).
In United States, numerous states offer favorable tax treatment for the construction and installation of pollution control equipment which provide an incentive to exceed requirements. The huge exemption from taxation the interest on debt that is issued by state or local governments to finance pollution control or waste disposal facilities was estimated a cost of $625 million in 1995. Control measures There are three main methods that the government uses to cope with external costs: Taxes, Emissions Charges, and Marketable Permits 1 .
Taxes (look at Appendix 1) The government can set a tax equal marginal external cost. The effect of such a tax is to make marginal private cost plus the tax equal to marginal social cost, 2. Emissions Charges (look at Appendix 2) The government sets a price per unit of pollution, so that the more a firm pollutes, the higher are its emissions charges. For the emissions charge to induce the firm to generate the efficient level of pollution, the government loud need a lot of information that is usually unavailable. 3.
Marketable Permits (look at Appendix 3) Each firm is assigned a permitted amount of pollution per period and firms trade permits. The market price of a permit confronts polluters with the social marginal cost of their actions and leads to an efficient outcome. This method was used successfully to decrease lead pollution in the United States. (Pearson Education) recommendations Good air quality is one of many basic requirements contributing to society. It increases productivity as well as directly enhancing human welfare through better health and an improved environment.
There are some strategies for government to take account of: Sustainability – this principle is at the heart of all Government policy and lies behind the push for technologies, behavior and the use of resources which are sustainable in the long-term Effects-based approach -This allows the effects on people and the environment to be treated proportionately to the particular risk of harm or damage, using the most appropriate package of measures. Polluter pays principle -Of the polluter is made to pay those costs that give them the incentive to behave in a less harmful way. It also means that the costs do not fall on society at large.