Green economy

Cost internalizing positive effects

• 25% drop in traffic once congestion pricing was in effect. The mayor was re-elected. -- Robin Chase, TED. http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=-tzZB6RbXsY
• 33cents tax on plastic bag. Usage dropped by 94% -- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/02/world/europe/02bags.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&hp&oref=slogin (New York Times, February 2, 2008)

Soft path infrastructure examples

• China Solar Hot Water Capacity Soon to be Equivalent to 40 Nuclear Plants: http://www.greenparty.ca/en/node/3967

Grey economy

What is a grey economy

A grey economy is an economy driven by a set of policies that does not take sufficiently into account the impact of externalities of economic transactions on the environment, human health or the public treasury.

Candian examples

Polution & health care

• A study by professor David Boyd from the University of Victoria determined that showed that pollution is killing up to 25,000 Canadians each year and costing the nation’s health care system up to $9.1 billion and 1.5 billion hospital days annually. (http://www.greenparty.ca/en/node/3101)

Gas taxes & policing costs

• "As an example the $7.376 billion total gas taxes collected by the Ontario provincial and Canadian federal governments in 1998, assuming all money collected federally were to be spent in Ontario, does not even offset the $9.1 billion cost estimate from the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police for traffic collisions for the same year" -- Russell McOrmond, http://www.flora.org/taxpayer/news/june06-2001.shtml, June 6th 2001

Costs of modes of transportation in Ottawa

• In a correspondence from a City of Ottawa councilor: "When one includes all the costs of travel including health and societal costs (air quality, quality of life) we find that the total public cost (not user cost) per passenger trip is:
  • Car driver: $2.50
  • Transit user: $1.76
  • Cyclist: $0.24
  • Pedestrian $0.10
  • (source 2003 “Costs of Travel Report” Delphi/MCR for City of Ottawa)"

Garbage and landfilling

• One can find much information about garbage and landfilling at http://www.ottawa.ca/city_services/recycling_garbage/rethink_garbage/faq_en.html :
  • In 2005, the net cost of collecting and processing recyclables was about $44 per tonne as compared to the $90 per tonne cost for collection and landfilling garbage.
  • In Ottawa, about 212,796 tonnes of residential waste was sent to landfills in 2005. Thus, collection and landfilling is costed in Ottawa at least 19 million $.

US examples

• The Texas Transportation Institute estimates that in 2000 the 75 largest metropolitan areas experienced 3.6 billion vehicle-hours of delay, resulting in 5.7 billion US gallons (21.6 billion liters) in wasted fuel and $67.5 billion in lost productivity, or about 0.7% of the nation's GDP. It also estimates that the annual cost of congestion for each driver is approximately $1,000 in very large cities and $200 in small cities. (Traffic congestion. (2007, October 30). -- In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:41, November 5, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Traffic_congestion&oldid=168081079)