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This strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is a technical piece intended to assist in the current and future identification of priority industrial pollutants and economic instruments to minimize industrial waste. This industrial sector SEA is one of six pieces of technical support envisioned by the Himachal Pradesh (HP) inclusive green growth (IGG) development policy loan (DPL) to fill knowledge gaps and strengthen operational success of the DPL. The DPL acknowledges that industrial development is an important economic driver within HP, and that such development must be consistent with maintaining the integrity of other natural resource assets on which human health depend. The general objectives of the SEA study are: (i) to assist in identification of priority pollutants and industries; (ii) to review existing institutional structures that address these pollutants; (iii) to identify and recommend potential reform options through the introduction of new policy approaches; and (iv) to identify complementary institutional support necessary to implement such a program. The SEA was undertaken from April to December 2013 based on secondary data collection, existing literature, various consultative meetings with key stakeholders, and diagnostic analyses of this information. The purpose of the consultations was to discuss the findings, issues, and preliminary directions suggested by the desk reviews, and to initiate a work plan for amassing additional information. The SEA has included participatory approaches to ensure that presented policy changes are designed and implemented in a way that is responsive to the different segments of HP society. This report is presented in three parts. Part one forms a foundation for focusing subsequent diagnostic work by providing more extensive detail on the institutional context, pollution situation, health and environmental linkages, and opportunities for using economic instruments. Part two performs additional diagnostic analyses to inform the core recommendations relating to options for new economic instruments, institutional reforms, and capacity building; these recommendations are presented in part three.

This paper focuses on both the environmental impact of intensive shrimp farming in the coastal region of Vietnam and the identification of options for cleaner production. We investigated water pollution, sediment contamination and the spread of diseases related to shrimp farming in the Can Gio district of Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), an area representative for the impacts of intensive shrimp production in the country. Data on the production process was compiled from site observations, interviews with local farmers and experts, as well as from secondary sources. The results indicate that, while a large number of individual farms may exceed environmental standards, intensive shrimp farming is not always associated with waste streams exceeding water quality standards. This is interesting because it shows currently available technologies can reduce pollution from intensive shrimp farms. The paper concludes by identifying technologically and economically feasible options for reducing water pollution, problems associated with contaminated sediment, and the spread of diseases.

This book originated from various institutional research projects and other individual pieces of research, conducted since 2003 on the topic of waste economics and policy, including waste management, effectiveness of waste policy at EU and national levels, evaluation of market and non-market effects of landfill sitings. The analysis of waste has found some collocation within a research area that deals with the de-coupling of major environmental pressures from economic growth, in which waste-related issues are as relevant as, for example, climate change and water supply. The sustainability of waste generation, management and disposal is key to the wider issue of the sustainability of economic development. We would underline that the chapters in this volume are not a collection of papers associated with a single project, but represent are the product of different analyses, at the European and Italian levels, with diverse starting points, which find some convergence and complementarity in terms of their methodology and results. Much of the collaboration and complementarity among the researchers involved in this volume are ongoing and further analyses on waste management, the economics of waste and assessments of waste and environmental policy effectiveness can be expected. Most of the research in this book has been developed cooperatively with partners from the National Research Council in Milan (specifically the Institute for the Study of firms and development, and Economic Systems Dynamics, now CERIS DSE), the University of Bologna (Department of Economics and Faculty of Law), and the University of Ferrara (Department of Economics, Institutions and Territory). A major stimulus for the analytical work described in this book is the collaboration between CERIS-DSE, APAT (the Italian Environmental Protection Agency, which is the data source for most of these analyses, and the European Topic Centre on Waste and Material Flows in Copenhagen. This collaboration started in 2002-2003, in the form of a series of projects under the umbrella of the European Environmental Agency (EEA) focusing on issues such as resource extraction and management, waste packaging policies, EU policies for landfill diversion, methodology for evaluation of policy effectiveness, among others. The results of these analyses are referenced and acknowledged as the inspiration for the current work. In the course of this research, several doctoral students joined the research network and the work on waste issues. They have contributed greatly to several of the papers that form the chapters of this book. Formal and informal research networks are defining and creating a set of expertise and accumulated knowledge on waste policy effectiveness, the driving forces for reductions in waste generation and landfill diversion. This book, rather than being a conclusion, represents a departure in the direction of new investigations and better evidence in relation to the complex web of direct and indirect factors contributing to the target of reducing the economic and environmental pressures/costs associated with waste generation, collection and disposal. This task is posing increasing challenges to institutions devoted to data collection and monitoring, which are required to provide detailed and reliable data in a difficult environment in terms of data assessments, to researchers who need to define and refine economic and policy oriented empirical models, in which the interaction and endogeneity that characterizes certain key factors, the dynamic framework and the spatial/regional features of waste systems are extremely challenging issues. It should be noted that this book by chance was being compiled at a time when the topic of waste has become critical in parts of Southern Italy. When the delicate balance between waste generation and disposal breaks down, due to policy failures or inadequacies related to both waste collection and management, local environmental pressu...