The benefits of clean air for lungs and wallets - Environmental damage costs of air pollution in Belgium 2000-2010

Environmental policies require a careful balance of costs and benefits, and therefore methodologies and tools are necessary that allow for the assessment of the benefits of environmental policies in economic terms. The paper will demonstrate such approach for air quality management in Belgium, within a European context. The European ExternE project (1991-2002) has developed an accounting framework for the assessment of environmental damage costs from different fuel cycles and energy technologies. This methodology applies an impact pathway approach to quantify the dispersion and reaction of emissions, their impacts on man and nature, which are finally weighted in terms of damage costs. The results show that air pollution is a big concern from public health point of view. Epidemiological studies suggest that exposure to particles is associated with important health effects including shortening of life-expectancy and respiratory morbidity. The damage to society is estimated to be around 5 % of GDP, and this does not include damages to ecosystems. More then 90 % of the calculated damage is due to public health effects from exposure to primary and secondary particles. About half of the damage is due to emissions from neighbouring countries. Consequently, this analysis points to the PM problem as a very important issue in air quality management, contrary to what traditional indicators that compare air quality measurements with standards would suggest. This is due to the fact that the decision making process of standards setting is slower in taking up recent scientific information.