Electricity and the environment: Air pollutant emissions in Argentina

Abstract

The substitution policies followed by the Argentine government in the area of electricity generation have achieved a substantial reduction in the emission of air pollutants. Moreover, by avoiding the need to invest in pollution control equipment, these policies have also generated significant savings, which reached $1.58 billion by 1985. However, the financial difficulties faced by Argentina in recent years have forced the country to divert from that strategy, and therefore from its positive environmental impact. The experience shows the importance of assessing, in economic terms, the different environmental impacts of energy policies. Those impacts can be underestimated if the energy planning process is based on purely microeconomic criteria.