Dryland Salinity in Western Australia

1. Do you think environmental interventions such as market mechanisms and voluntary approaches are as effective as traditional state-based interventions like regulation and defined environmental standards supported by fines, legal action etc ? Why or why not? (Where possible use an example to support your response).

I think, the environmental regulations provide an additive advantage to existing regulations, however, independently, I do not think that they can suffice for the classical regulatory mechanisms. The minimum protections are required to serve as a primary stencil for the process of regulation and management of the environmental assets. The environmental interventions are inclusive of the future recommendations that are associated with the overall use of environmental resources. Market mechanisms have evolved rapidly in the environmental management. These mechanisms certainly provide flexibility in the process if instrumentation and aids in the reduction of costs of meeting with the emission targets of the greenhouse gases. An example of these mechanisms in the “Emissions trading system”.

The Emission Trading systems have been applied in several countries for effective action against climate change. The EU Emission Trading system (EU ETS) was adopted as a tool to reduce the greenhouse emissions. This has been the first carbon market of the world and also the largest. The trading system functions by ensuring a quantity limit and a set price on the emissions. The currency of the emissions is issued by the government that caps a set quantity of emissions target and the trading price. And, therefore follows a “cap and trade” approach and have been developed withing the guidelines of the Kyoto Protocol. However, the success of this system has been debatable. The low carbon prices have significantly impacted the market and the energy policies. Against the low costs, another threat that has impacted the successful application and intactness of the EU ETS is the withdrawal of the UK from EU. UK has been a strong supporter of EU ETS. This system will also be impacted by the market entry of China that is ensuring a big inclusion in the system.

This highlights how the system is extremely dependent on the political and social fluctuations. Therefore, it becomes extremely crucial to have state based interventions that can assist in the regularization and uniform application of the interventions immune to the temporary yet systemic fluctuations

As far as discussion about will is concerned, I will like to highlight the “will” of an organization is “subject to market risks” where they ascertain their approach only with the trends focused on personal motivation of profits than sustainability. I understand that it is not okay to generalize all businesses in the same hood. But, again, are not businesses defined as a systemic exchange to earn profits? Hence, even when, there is ample market demands and availability of the knowledge. Therefore, I think it is important to have regulatory centralized measures

References for Dryland Salinity in Western Australia

Cong, R., & Lo, A. Y. (2017). Emission trading and carbon market performance in Shenzhen, China. Applied Energy, 193, 414-425.

Emission trading Scheme system failures. Retrieved from: https://www.euractiv.com/section/emissions-trading-scheme/news/emissions-trading-system-failures-sour-energy-policy-efforts/

Nguyen, D. H., Chapman, A., & Farabi-Asl, H. (2019). Nation-wide emission trading model for economically feasible carbon reduction in Japan. Applied Energy, 255, 113869.

Soliman, A. M., & Nasir, M. A. (2019). Association between the energy and emission prices: An analysis of EU emission trading system. Resources Policy, 61, 369-374.

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