Future Air Quality Management Policy Direction: Perspectives from East Asian Cities

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Future Air Quality Management Policy Direction
Perspectives from East Asian Cities

• Lucinda Peters
• Murdoch University, Western Australia
• L.Peters_at_murdoch.edu.au

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Outline of Presentation

• Research Topic
• Methodology
• Policy Instruments
• Policy Instruments Experiences from East Asia
  Cities
• Implications for AQM Policy in East Asian Cities
• Conclusions

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Research Questions

• What policy instruments have been utilised for
  AQM in developing, transitional and developed
  East Asian cities?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of policy
  instruments within urban AQM frameworks in East
  Asia?
• What are the emerging trends for policy
  instruments in AQM frameworks of developing,
  transitional and developed East Asian cities?

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Policy Instruments

• Command and Control Regulation (C and C)
• Education Instruments
• Economic Instruments
• Co-regulation
• Self-regulation

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Methodology

• Qualitative Research
• Research Methods
• Literature Reviews
• Interviews with AQM experts
• Computer Data Analysis
• Case Study Selection
• Cities investigated
• Singapore
• Tokyo, Japan
• Bangkok, Thailand
• Beijing, PRC
• Jakarta, Indonesia
• Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
• Hanoi, Vietnam

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Command and Control Regulation Experiences
Summary

• I think for the developing country we should
  stay on the command and control regulation,
  besides we can still use the education program,
  education inducement and we can use the economic
  inducement, but we should focus mainly on command
  and control regulation.
• Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

• Extensively applied in East Asian cities
• National and local laws (layers)
• Land-use planning (industry)
• Industry and Vehicle emission standards
• Vehicle I M programs
• Waste burning restrictions
• Importance of C and C
• Within case study cities
• (18 Comments)
• East Asian urban AQM frameworks
• (23 Comments)

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Command and Control Regulation Experiences
Summary

• But still I think you need to start up with
  some simple, clear requirements regulations, so
  required regulations it is good to start with,
  its clear, many people feels its fair in the
  beginning. But its not flexible, so later on the
  people as they become more conscientious about
  environment, awareness is better, I think its
  important to implement other measures to allow
  more flexibility.
• Beijing, PRC

• Strengths
• Makes individuals/firms comply and conform to AQM
  laws
• Dependable (but conditional)
• Fair and consistent (defined limits of behavior)
• Weaknesses
• Inflexible
• No reward for beyond compliance behavior
• Resource intensive (e.g. monitoring and
  inspections)
• Institutional failings
• Difficulties with transient/area sources

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Education Instruments Experiences Summary

• Strengths
• Improving public and industry awareness of AQ
  issues in city
• Enabling understanding of need for action on AQM
• Places pressure on government and firms to
  improve AQM in city
• Weaknesses
• Requires government support and provision of
  infrastructure
• Needs persuasive argument or self-interest for
  individual pro-active action (motivation)
• Operates well as a complementary policy
  instrument not effective alone

• Education and outreach. To build the demand for
  it. And also to build the demand for people to
  really comply. Because all these policies involve
  subjects who are being regulated who are spread
  out throughout large areas and who are very hard
  to regulate from a central point. So there has to
  be an agreement, willingness to comply on the
  part of the population to such regulation, for it
  to have any impact whatsoever.
• Jakarta, Indonesia

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Economic Instruments Experiences Summary

• Strengths
• Cost-effectiveness in AQM framework
• Flexibility
• Reduced government role in regulation (e.g.
  permit market)
• Weaknesses
• Will require government resources for monitoring
  and enforcement of programs
• Not popular approach with individuals/firms (e.g.
  fuel price)

• And then gradually it is needed to introduce
  some market based instruments. Because not only
  for developing countries but also the developed
  countries, you always have limited resources to
  do something. So you are better to find
  efficient or cost-effective way to achieve
  objectives.
• Beijing, PRC

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Co-regulation and Self-regulation Experiences
Summary

• Strengths
• Encourages pro-active and voluntary behaviour for
  AQM
• International market influence
• (e.g. export approvals, image)
• Reduced government role in AQM (de-regulation)
• Weaknesses
• Culture of resistance to voluntarism (e.g.
  industry)
• Difficult for Small/Medium Enterprise (capacity
  to implement)

• Because of the enforcement action in place
  historically now the government can afford to
  take a softer approach. The industries over the
  last 30 years have seen the benefit of looking
  after the environment. They tend to follow and
  attend seminars, talks, to try and understand why
  things have to be appreciated
• Singapore

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Observations East Asian Cities

• Key Findings
• 1. The importance of individual policy instrument
  roles in AQM frameworks (e.g. command and
  control)
• 2. Emerging complementary policy instrument
  combinations in developing AQM frameworks in East
  Asian cities
• 3. Stages of AQM framework progress in developing
  and developed East Asian Cities
• ? policy instrument combinations

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Policy Instrument Roles Developed v Developing
City Experience

• I think its a very big argument whether you
  can directly going economic instrument without
  doing command and control. Usually in the past
  you apply command and control and industry follow
  that and they have difficulty and then go to
  economic instrument. Stages. The most difficult
  stage is various regulation, it doesnt work if
  it is not enforced. Thats very common in many of
  the cities.
• Tokyo, Japan

• Command and Control regulation (implemented) as a
  basis for the introduction of different policy
  instruments for AQM
• Education Instruments
• Complementary instrument
• Command and Control
• Economic Instruments
• Education instruments
• Command and Control
• Co-regulation Self-regulation
• Pro-active environment
• International factors
• Command and Control

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Policy Instrument Directions

• Developing East Asian Cities Policy direction
• Command and control (large role focused on basic
  command and control programs)
• Plus education instruments (large complementary
  role)
• Investigating economic instruments for AQM (small
  usage)
• Plus self-regulation for large multinational or
  local companies
• Transitional East Asian Cities Policy Direction
• Command and control (large role that is
  effectively being implemented)
• Plus education instruments
• Investigating and utilising selective economic
  instruments (e.g. tax differentiation)
• Plus self-regulation for large and medium sized
  companies
• Developed East Asian Cities Policy Direction
• De-regulation process pursued
• Decreased reliance on command and control
  regulation
• Plus large education, economic instrument,
  co-regulation and self-regulation component

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Conclusions

• Command and Control is the most important policy
  instrument in AQM frameworks in East Asian
  cities.
• Command and Control provides an important basis
  for policy instrument progression in AQM
  (Developed City Viewpoint).
• Other policy instruments for AQM are becoming
  increasingly popular and important in East Asian
  cities
• (State of Transition)
• Future policy instrument direction in East Asian
  cities can be guided by the history of AQM
  progress from leading developed cities of the
  region.

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Thank You Very Much For Your Attention.