Economic Evaluation of the Benefits Associated with the Reduction of Black Carbon

This document compiles the analysis of benefits and co-benefits expected from the evaluation of the conditions of emission of the pollutants BC, PM2.5, SO2 and CO among different combustion systems applied in the national brick sector.

The analysis of these benefits and co-benefits is based on an analysis of the environmental, social and economic conditions that can generate direct effects through the emission of these pollutants. In order to land this analysis to specific conditions of the brick sector, an example of possible application is chosen the case study of Los Mochuelos Mining Park, which given the availability of more information by the National Brick Inventory (CAEM, 2016), allows establishing possible results comparable to the conditions observed in the field for both environmental and economic indicators.

The conditions determined in the case study may be reproducible to other places in Colombia, as long as disaggregated information on costs at the operational level is available from the entrepreneurs to allow this analysis to be developed in a specific way. The valuation of profits is presented taking into account the following analysis:

Environmental benefits.

• Reduction of inefficiencies due to resource consumption associated with the emission of atmospheric pollutants (especially BC and PM2.5) in the brick production life cycle. o Reduction of environmental loads associated with the immission of particulate matter (especially BC and PM2.5) and combustion gases.
• Reduction in the change of the temperature of the atmosphere due to medium and long term accumulation effects (co-benefits determined through specialized tools such as LEAP-IBC).
• Reduction of surplus in radioactive forcing due to medium and long term accumulation effects (co-benefits determined by means of specialized tools such as LEAP-IBC).

Social benefits.

• Reduction of vulnerable receptors directly exposed to BC and PM2.5, which can be assessed by modelling the pollutant dispersion behaviour.
• Reduction of social charges (in terms of morbidity and mortality) to the health system, which can be assessed by estimating the conditions of population groups in the vicinity of the point of issue.

Economic benefits. 

• Reduction of production costs associated with lower fuel use through the acquisition of better inputs or implementation of better production practices that reduce reprocessing.
• Reduction of environmental liabilities due to the use and demand of natural resources (co-benefits determined through specialized tools such as LEAPIBC.