Guidance document on economic instruments to reduce emissions of regional air pollutants

At its thirty-first session (Geneva, 11–13 December 2012), the Executive Body to the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution adopted a guidance document on economic instruments to reduce emissions of regional air pollutants to the 1999 Protocol to Abate Acidification, Eutrophication and Ground-level Ozone (Gothenburg Protocol), and decided that it would be the guidance document referred to in article 6, paragraph 1 (g), of the Protocol, as amended (ECE/EB.AIR/113/Add.1, decision 2012/9). The present document contains the guidance document as adopted. It is designed to assist Parties in fulfilling their emission reduction commitments under the Gothenburg Protocol. The economic instruments of relevance here are market-based mechanisms that provide incentives to pollute less. As they are market-based, they offer the flexibility that will favour the most cost-effective and efficient pollution controls. Emphasis in this guidance is on the use of economic instruments for the control of regional air pollution from emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, ammonia, volatile organic compounds and fine particles.