Environmental Policy & Economics Speaker Event with Morteza Mesbah

• When: April 17, 2013
• Time: 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM
• Location: 5208 River Building, SPPA Faculty Boardroom
• Email contact: sppa_events@carleton.ca

You are invited to attend a talk by Morteza Mesbah entitled Optimal NOx Control Policy Design Using an Advanced Atmospheric Modeling Tool.

Nitrogen oxides (NOx) are the main precursors of ground-level ozone (main portion of smog) and regulated in the US through an emissions trading program for US power plants. The nature of the pollutant, however, affects the design of the program. NOx is a non-uniformly mixed pollutant since it has short atmospheric lifetime. The ozone formation potential of NOx emissions and their marginal health damages depend on a number of factors such as location, time of release, as well as chemical regime of the trajectory.  Given these potential spatial and temporal differences in health impacts, it is unknown whether the US emissions trading program have optimally reduced ozone concentrations. The paper addresses this shortcoming in traditional emissions trading systems and develops a methodology for identifying optimal NOx emission control strategies. A 2007 case study of 218 US power plants is used to examine the method. The results indicate that differentiating between emissions can significantly enhance environmental performance.

To view/download a larger version of the event poster, please click the image below.