Revue d'économie et de statistique appliquée
Volume 8, Numéro 2, Pages 77-84
2011-12-31

Meso-economic Indicators Of Environmental Costs And Benefits For The Cement Industry In Algeria

Authors : Azzaz Larbi . Zakane Ahmed .

Abstract

Due to persistent environmental problems, the industry worldwide is improving its capacity at capturing the economics of the environment in order to integrate environmental remediation criteria into its decision making process. Indeed, uncontrolled environmental damages constitute as many foregone benefits. Therefore, estimating and controlling actual environmental costs lead to identifying potential environmental and economic benefits. So far, available studies analyzed environmental issues either at the level of a company (micro), or at the level of a country (macro). As these two levels of analysis are not connected, there is a lack in the environment-economic knowledge at the sector level (Meso). The aim of this applied study is to translate in Meso-economic terms the environmental stakes of industry by bridging environmental diagnoses done at company level and economic analyses done at national level. Methodological steps and first Meso-estimates of environmental damage costs, costs of resource inefficiencies, and remediation costs are provided for targeted industry sectors in several Arab countries. Although these estimates should be considered as orders of magnitude, this approach provides the industry with useful indicators of environmental costs and benefits that are consistent with other indicators at national, regional, and international levels. In this respect, Meso-economic indicators help at grasping the effort needed to protect the environment and give estimates of returns on investments.

Keywords

Meso-economic, CEMENT INDUSTRY, decision making process