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Can environmental goals be achieved more efficiently?

Poland should be able to achieve the greenhouse gas ceiling embedded in the Kyoto Protocol relatively easily. Nevertheless, by exceeding these commitments Poland could reap additional economic and environmental gains by taking up opportunities for trading emission permits, notably under the forthcoming EU trading scheme for carbon dioxide. In contrast, satisfying EU air pollution directives could entail large costs, particularly if reductions were to be achieved through command-and-control regulations. Instead, the Polish authorities should take advantage of the option to achieve the same level of overall emission reductions by other means and introduce a national cap-and-trade scheme for air pollutants. This solution would reduce compliance costs significantly, principally by avoiding having to install scrubbers on all old coal-fired plants when many of them are likely to close down as the price of carbon dioxide emissions rises.

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The full edition of the OECD Economic Survey for Poland is available from:

• SourceOECD for subscribing institutions and many libraries
• Government officials with OLISnet accounts
• OECD Online Bookshop for non subscribers
• Password-protected web site for accredited journalists

Return to the OECD Economic Survey - Poland 2004 homepage

A printer-friendly Policy Brief (pdf format) may also be downloaded.  The Policy Brief contains the OECD assessment and recommendations, but does not include all of the charts available from the above pages