In This Month's Newsletter:
Supporting Belgian Policymakers on Substituting Harmful Chemicals
Socioeconomic Analysis for the BEP4CAL project
How People Value Brownfield Site Development for Housing
Our Stated Preference work for Homes England
envecon 2024: Early Bird Tickets On Sale
Register by January 31
A festive farewell to 2023
As the year draws to a close, all of us at eftec would like to extended our gratitude to our many clients, project partners, and those of you who have followed our work.
We are incredibly proud of the progress that has been made by our clients and the wider environmental economics community in 2023, and we are especially grateful that we get to work with you all to bring nature into economic decision-making.
While there will be some mince pies and the inevitable bad TV, we'll do our best to get out and about in nature to rest and revive for the tasks ahead in 2024.
We wish you all a restful break and a happy New Year when it comes.
eftec
Supporting Belgian Policymaking on Substituting Harmful Chemicals
Our Socioeconomic analysis for the BEP4CAL project supporting Belgian policy on chemicals substitution
We recently helped the Belgian government take steps to address the problem of harmful chemicals pollution by contributing to the Report on the Belgian Plan for Chemical Alternatives (BEP4CAL), published late November. Producing the fourth phase of the project, eftec conducted a socio-economic evaluation of the policy measures to promote the substitution of Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) in Belgium. This project is run by our long standing partners, Apeiron and is helping to develop Belgian policy on chemicals substitution.
eftec assessed a shortlist of policies selected by Apeiron through a multi criteria analysis. Through this socio-economic evaluation, we found that some of the best policies were those that did not just place requirements on companies to notify use of SVHCs and submit substitution action plans, but also offered non-financial and/or financial support. Mandatory rather than voluntary measures had greater impact, but it is still particularly important to support smaller enterprises, who may otherwise lack resources, to engage in substitution measures. We also highlight the need for greater availability of information on the Belgian SVHC market to produce more accurate scenarios in the future.
How People Value Brownfield Site Development for Housing
Our Stated Preference work for Homes England
Delivering new homes in England involves choices on where and how to build that result in a variety of environmental and social impacts. eftec, with SQW, has been leading research into those questions on behalf of Homes England, who support the development of new homes through public-private partnerships.
Redeveloping brownfield sites (areas that were previously developed but are under-used or no longer in use) is a key strategy for the development of new housing, especially in urban areas. Brownfield development can reduce the environmental impact of new housing by alleviating pressure to build on greenfield sites (such as greenbelts, woodlands, or farmland). It can also improve the wellbeing of local communities by removing the negative local impacts of disused sites.
This study provides economic evidence on how residents value building new homes on brownfield sites in their local area. Using a stated preference approach, we find that households in England view undeveloped brownfield sites as having negative impacts, prefer redevelopment to no action, and place a significant value on the improvements that redevelopment can bring.
This research is part of a larger project to develop a more comprehensive approach for including the environmental impacts of housing development in decision making processes. Stay tuned.
envecon 2024: Early Bird Tickets Now Available
Reduced-Price Tickets Available Until Jan 31
Early-Bird Tickets for envecon 2024, UKNEE's annual applied environmental economics conference, are available until January 31.
Early Bird tickets cost £275 and include in-person access, food, and drink at The Royal Society. They also include year of UKNEE membership, which provides a subscription to the Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy and access to the member's section of the UKNEE website, allowing you to watch back webinars and envecon sessions, connect with other members, and share your updates on the website and in our newsletter. After January 31, ticket prices will rise to £300.
There are also student tickets, priced at £120, and online tickets at £30.
We hope to see many of you at envecon next March. If you have any questions, please contact [email protected].
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