Soocheol Lee

Review of recycling performance indicators: A study on collection rate in Taiwan

The Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (Taiwan EPA) launched a national Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system after integrating eight private recycling organizations in 1998. After that, the environmental performance of the EPR system brought a lot of attention to policy makers. Many studies show positive environmental effects of the EPR system in Taiwan. However, there are controversial questions remained, such as whether the performance indicators used are the right choice to estimate the environmental effects of the recycling policy? Can those estimated results really reflect the performance of the system? This paper would therefore like to more accurately evaluate the performance indicators of the EPR system based on data observed over the past decade in Taiwan. In the process of evaluating the performance indicators, we have found that the collection rates for durable goods are often ignored in countries that pursue a zero waste policy. This may affect the actual recycling outcome and resource direction targeted by producers. However, in order for the collection rate to be adopted as a policy indicator, how to estimate the amounts of retired or waste products during a period is critical. In this paper, we estimate the collection rate for electrical and electronic waste by using the survival analysis and ownership data analysis approaches. We also provide a comparison of both approaches and put forward suggestions for directions in the future in solid waste management.

An Assessment of Japanese Carbon Tax Reform Using the E3MG Econometric Model

This paper analyses the potential economic and environmental effects of carbon taxation in Japan using the E3MG model, a global macroeconometric model constructed by the University of Cambridge and Cambridge Econometrics. The paper approaches the issues by considering first the impacts of the carbon tax in Japan introduced in 2012 and then the measures necessary to reduce Japans emissions in line with its Copenhagen pledge of −25% compared to 1990 levels. The results from the model suggest that FY2012 Tax Reform has only a small impact on emission levels and no significant impact on GDP and employment. The potential costs of reducing emissions to meet the 25% reduction target for 2020 are quite modest, but noticeable. GDP falls by around 1.2% compared to the baseline and employment by 0.4% compared to the baseline. But this could be offset, with some potential economic benefits, if revenues are recycled efficiently. This paper considers two revenue recycling scenarios. The most positive outcome is if revenues are used both to reduce income tax rates and to increase investment in energy efficiency. This paper shows there could be double dividend effects, if Carbon Tax Reform is properly designed.

The macroeconomic impacts of environmental tax reform: A comparison of model results

1. Energy systems and environmental policy in East Asia 2. Introduction to the modelling in this book Part 1: The Power Choices and the Sustainability of Energy Usage in East Asia 3. Modeling the Power Sectors in East Asia: The choice of Power Sources 4. Modeling the power sector in East Asia: Economic and Environmental impacts of the choices of power sources 5. The environmental and macroeconomic implications of phasing out nuclear power in Japan - E3MG vs CGE modeling results 6. Energy efficiency policies in East Asia: Macroeconomic implications and interactions with existing climate policies 7. Energy structure and energy security under climate mitigation scenarios in East Asia Part 2: Environmental Tax Reform for Environmental and Economic Balance 8. The double dividend of an environmental tax reform in East Asian economies 9. The macroeconomic impacts of ETR: A comparison of model results 10. Environmental taxes and fiscal deficits 11. The distributional effects of low carbon policies in Japan and South Korea 12. Human Capital and Environmental Taxation in Japan and South Korea 13. Competitiveness issues and carbon leakage 14. The role for border tax adjustments Part 3: Trade and Interdependency of Economy and Environment in East Asia 15. Measuring both production-based and consumption-based CO2 emissions of different countries based on the multi-region input-output model 16. An empirical study on the interdependency of energy consumption and CO2 emissions under the international IO structure of the Asia-Pacific region 17. Emissions from international maritime transportation in East Asia 18. An environmental assessment of FTA in East Asian regions using the CGE modeling approach 19. An environmental assessment of East Asian trade agreements using E3ME-Asia 20. Conclusion