Title: Environmental externalities and their effect on the cost of consumer products

Authors: Wojciech Stanek; Lucyna Czarnowska

Addresses: Institute of Thermal Technology, Silesian University of Technology, Konarskiego 22, 44-100, Gliwice, Poland. ' Institute of Thermal Technology, Silesian University of Technology, Konarskiego 22, 44-100, Gliwice, Poland

Abstract: Economic activities generate pollution, which causes damages to the society and the environment. It is possible to estimate the quantities of emitted pollutants from energy conversion systems using thermodynamic principles combined with empirical techniques. The indices of direct emission are often not sufficient to show the entire environmental load because production processes are interconnected. The methodology of determination of cumulative exergy consumption was proposed by Szargut as the thermo-ecological cost (TEC). Recently, Szargut and Stanek published the methodology of cumulative CO₂ emission determination called thermo-climatic cost (TCC). The main objective is to show that the TCC can be extended to evaluation of emission of any harmful substance. To achieve that, the new index of cumulative emission (CEm) is proposed. Two different methods of evaluating the cost of emission are presented; physical (exergy) used to investigate the influence of emission on the depletion of natural resources; and economic (monetary) used to show the influence of externalities on the market prices of consumer goods.

Keywords: thermoecological cost; TEC; cumulative emissions; exergy cost; environmental externalities; society damages; environmental damage; harmful substances; natural resources depletion; emissions evaluation; thermo-climatic cost; TCC; consumer goods; product costs; exergy consumption; emitted pollutants; environmental pollution; market prices; economic cost.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESD.2012.049142

International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 2012 Vol.11 No.1, pp.50 - 63

Published online: 30 Aug 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article