User-pays Principle Research Articles

Framework for assessing the environmental impacts of intermodal transportation

Abstract This research aimed to use a sustainable approach based on the internalisation of external cost analysis of intermodal transportation of freight to assess the impacts of these activities on the environment. This research used two approaches to develop a model that illustrates the internalisation of the external cost of freight transport. The first approach was used to calculate the cost of emissions for each route considering the transportation and its’ cost in the country of destination. The second approach calculated the external cost considering only the distance travelled by the vehicle. The results showed that the companies operating in the selected scenarios would have to pay an additional cost for the transportation of goods. The scenarios had different pollutants emitted during the transportation, which means that the negative impact on human health and the environment is evident. The urgency to limit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased concerns for all activity sectors. Climate change has drawn the attention of governments, companies, and academics, promoting initiatives that mitigate the impact of their activities. The model for measuring emissions was used due to the need for a comprehensive cost analysis to further assess the impact on the environment. Regarding the internalisation of the external cost emissions, the findings showed that different scenarios had a different pollutant emitted during the transportation, which means that the negative impact for human health and the environment is evident. Findings also indicate that to minimise the impact during the transportation, considering the “user-pays principle”, these impacts should be discussed in more detail between stakeholders.

Revisiting marine services pricing in South Africa’s ports

Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) is the landlord and sole provider of marine services in South Africa’s eight commercial ports. Historically, TNPA set port prices for marine (nautical) services below full cost recovery. Price regulation has improved the situation, but substantial reforms are still required. This paper revisits marine services pricing in South Africa’s ports. The methodology employed content analysis to analyse 99 stakeholders’ submissions to the Ports Regulator of South Africa from financial years 2013/2014 to 2021/2022. The results are discussed under four categories of themes: concerns about the above-inflation price increase, suggestions on alternative marine services pricing models, concerns about marine services provision and productivity, and the disputed cross-subsidization between ports and port user groups. Despite above-inflation price increases for marine services, tariffs remain 44% below the global benchmarked mean, whilst revenues from cargo owners subsidise port tenants and shipping lines. The relatively low prices for marine services may exacerbate the sub-optimal levels of investment and maintenance in marine services. The study recommends that marine services pricing reforms incorporate the user-pays principle, be founded on activity-based costing, and adopt a dual-till model. Activity-based costing is considered the international best practice, and it is the preferable approach recommended by several port users in South Africa.

A LEGAL ANALYSIS OF THE PROPOSED WASTE DISCHARGE SYSTEM IN TERMS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN ENVIRONMENTAL AND WATER LAW FRAMEWORK

Environmental regulation in South Africa relies significantly on the “command and control” approach which employs environmental authorisations as the primary regulatory mechanisms. The National Water Act 36 of 1998 currently provides for an alternative regulatory mechanism (economic) in the form of the Waste Discharge Charge System (WDCS) which is to be implemented during the course of 2007. The WDCS is based on the polluter- and user-pays principles which are both economic principles aimed at internalising external costs of pollution. The main aim of the WDCS is to attach a cost to the impact caused by waste discharge with the intentionof reducing the damaging effects of waste on water resources. This article investigates the WDCS by making some preliminary remarks on the rationale, nature, design, and aims of the system as it is established in the broader South African environmental and water law framework.

Stormwater Utilities: A Sustainable Answer to Many Questions

One of the most complex and difficult questions to answer concerns how to organize and economically support public services of all kinds. In terms of services that involve a multiplicity of actors and objectives, as is the case with urban stormwater management, the difficulty is magnified and resources never seem to be sufficient. This paper reviews the successful approaches to stormwater management in a number of countries and concludes that it is both feasible and possible to successfully structure stormwater management in cities using a variety of models and incentives. With examples from cases practiced in the USA and Canada, based theoretically on the user-pays principle and on the fair distribution of impacts, the text innovates showing not only a technically and legally viable option, but an opportunity for users to become aware of the importance of reducing environmental impacts. By raising the possibility of delivering services out of the general public budget, reducing the taxation of all in exchange for charging only users and improving the performance, the discussion is directed, in an innovative way, to a very rarely questioned aspect and links the change in mentality from and economic way of thinking towards the new stormwater paradigm shift and SDGs.

A comparative analysis of the anthropogenic impact and user-pays principle availability in the model areas of the Russian Federation

Subject. This article assesses the effectiveness of the existing system of environmental management based on the user-pays principle in terms of reducing the negative impact on the environment. Objectives. The article aims to conduct a comparative analysis of the anthropogenic impact on natural environment components and deficiency payments for pollution in the model areas of the Russian Federation. Methods. For the study, I used the methods of computational, comparative, systems, and structural analyses. Results. Based on the ecological rating of the Russian Federation subjects, the article defines model areas, assesses the degree of anthropogenic impact on the basis of pollution relative rates, and describes the particularities of environmental investment in the selected areas. Conclusions. The system of payments for pollution does not affect the economic behavior of economic entities.

Funding for roads in South Africa: Understanding the principles of fair and efficient road user charges

Roads support economic development and is one of the key economic infrastructures of South Africa. Funding for roads has been, and continues to be, controversial and faced with a multitude of challenges. The fuel levy, for instance, has for decades been the basis of road funding, but in recent years it has experienced declining effectiveness and efficiency. Both South African and international policy documents frequently propose the so-called user-pay principle to be adopted to fund land transport. It is frequently understood that the user-pay will imply sufficient revenue to sustain the road user, however this assumption is not entirely correct. In this paper the importance of roads to the economy is introduced which underscores the importance of an adequate and stable revenue source for road construction, maintenance and upgrade. The paper does emphasize that sufficient and adequate roads and hence funding is, however, not sufficient to support economic development. The paper defines and discuss the user-pay principle and the importance of charging road users efficient prices for road use. In transport, the term marginal social costs, sometimes also referred to as the principle of short run marginal social costs describes efficient road use prices. The paper discuss this concept as a road use charge. The technical difficulties of implementing marginal social cost is presented which are often the reason why alternative pricing regimes, such as average cost or long run marginal costs are adopted in practice. The paper concludes with a discussion on the way forward for South Africa.

A review of impacts associated with infrastructure news coverage in South Africa

ABSTRACT The importance of considering both social and environmental impacts of infrastructure development is widely accepted. However, social impacts are often treated in subordination to environmental impacts. This paper examined whether social or environmental impacts dominate public discourse by reviewing 10 years of news coverage by the Mail and Guardian. This found that social impacts dominated news coverage, generated negative emotional responses and more public outrage compared to environmental impacts. At a macro level, this review suggests that social impacts need to receive greater consideration in decision-making. News on power plants was dominated by the economic impacts of insufficient electricity and costs associated with new projects. Social-justice impacts associated with procurement irregularities were also reported. Redressing discriminatory land planning and social-justice impacts caused by the misuse of public finances were the main social impacts associated with housing articles. Impacts on day-to-day activities were often central to articles on water provision, with health-and-wellbeing impacts central to articles on sanitation infrastructure. Articles on roads principally discussed the economic and way-of-life impacts associated with the user-pay principle. Decision-makers will need to consider these social impacts to ensure future project success.

Getting some reality into debates about NBN FTTP

Sentiment about fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) runs hot in Australia, fuelled by the NBN initiative for Australia's next generation of broadband. Unfortunately most of the debate is ill-informed, focusing on plumbing rather than the uses to which the network may be put. The base of users subscribing to the higher speeds made possible by FTTP is limited right now, and much of their communication will be speed-limited by constraints outside of the NBN FTTP segment. In addition, a growing proportion of Australians choose to operate entirely on mobile connections. For all these reasons, the number of users who would benefit from FTTP in the short term is modest.
 The Coalition has proposed greater use of existing infrastructure – in particular, using fibre-to-the-node (FTTN)/DSL technology and potentially hybrid-fibre-coax (HFC) technology – to deliver an upgrade earlier and at lower cost. In the face of cost pressures, it is likely that the original 93% FTTP target would be adjusted with greater use of wireless and satellite technologies in rural areas and the use of copper for the final link in multi-dwelling complexes. More generally, there is no question that FTTN/DSL solutions can deliver good quality broadband, but further work will be needed to determine where this can be done cost-effectively. Similarly, with appropriate upgrades, HFC networks can deliver next-generation broadband speeds. When practical factors are taken into consideration, the gap between Labor and Coalition plans closes somewhat.
 Developing the best strategy for Australia needs to take cost into consideration, and there is scope for NBN Co to improve its performance in this area. Any major cost blowout would have significant ramifications for broadband users and use in Australia. If the rollout of FTTP is scaled back, users with a need may still get access on a user-pays principle – though the practicality of this has yet to be demonstrated. Widespread FTTP remains the right long-term goal for Australia, but the approach for getting there needs to be finessed.

TOLLING MOTORWAYS IN THE TIME OF ECONOMIC DOWNTURN: THE CASE OF PORTUGAL

The recent European debt crisis has led many governments to impose strict measures to alleviate public expenditure and increase revenue, especially in the southern countries. Many public services and infrastructures became more costly for users due to the increase of existing fees or the implementation of new ones. In Portugal, one of the measures adopted by the government consisted in the removal of shadow tolls and the application of the user-pays principle to the entire network of rural motorways. To rapidly implement, this measure, in the context of financial constraints, the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC), materialized by the installation of gantries in selected motorway segments, was the preferred solution over the more time and resource consuming construction of toll plazas. Toll revenue is directly collected by the state, which intends to cover, at least partially, the expenses associated with the contractual payments to private concessionaires for the traffic using these roads. The main objective of this research is to provide a new optimization tool to allocate toll gantries to the segments of an existing motorway with the aim of maximizing toll revenue, based on the case study of Portuguese motorways. A macroscopic decision model that predicts drivers’ decision on using a tolled segment or the fastest alternative route and an optimization model that sets the price and location of toll gantries along a given motorway work together to provide a valuable tool to maximize the revenue. A special focus has been placed on scenarios of economic downturn, characterized by a negative growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP); however, the new tool allows making explanatory analyses for situations of economic growth. The results show that the optimal configuration for ETC vary with the macroeconomic scenario, with the number of tolled segments and price per kilometre inducing relevant variations on the revenue and traffic volume. The proposed methodology may be applied in other countries to assist decision makers in the implementation of ETC in motorways under different conditions. The required data is easy to collect from sources at the disposal of the practitioners.

The User Pays's Principle and the Electricity Sector: A South African Case

This paper discusses the user pays's principle (UPP) within the South African developmental state concept. The essence of the paper is to ascertain whether UPP can be implemented in the electricity sector without necessarily harming the developmental state agenda taking into account the challenges of inequality, unemployment and poverty in South Africa. In this paper, we present the arguments in support of the UPP in the electricity supply industry (ESI) and its building blocks. The paper analyses the role of regulatory authority in the implementation and adoption of the UPP. Finally, the paper analyses the role of UPP in the developmental state concept and the challenges of implementing it. The analysis shows that adoption of inclining block tariff (IBTs) was based on the individual's perceived ability to pay and not on UPP while the free basic electricity (FBE) policy is a government-funded initiative meant to provide electricity to poor households. The paper also found that the ESI currently has high levels of inefficiencies in production and use, procurement and operation of utilities, cross-subsidisation, infrastructure and maintenance backlogs which may hinder the full implementation of UPP. Lastly, although the full implementation of UPP could incentivise efficient operation of the ESI and attract the much-needed investment in the sector, the UPP system will pose serious challenges considering the country’s three main problems: inequality, unemployment and poverty.

Evaluating fisheries systems: A comprehensive analytical framework and its application to the EU's Common Fisheries Policy

AbstractDespite regular reforms, problems under the EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) persist. In order to identify priorities for future reforms of the policy, we developed an analytical framework consisting of 17 criteria and specifying indicators, derived from scientific, wider fisheries, and common resources literature. We applied the framework to the CFP governance system, its regulations, institutions, and processes at EU as well as member state level. The results show that the CFP does not fully meet any of the 17 criteria for an effective resource policy. Its performance was assessed as “neutral” regarding 10 criteria and “negative” regarding seven criteria. Trend analysis shows that there is a slightly positive trend regarding the CFP's performance, with five criteria trending positively, 11 showing a neutral trend and only one criterion trending negatively (simplicity of rules). The analysis identified five criteria which are performing badly and have not improved over time: simplicity of rules, user‐pays principle, resource efficiency, accountability, and compliance mechanisms. Future reforms of the CFP should first and foremost address these criteria while continuing efforts to improve the CFP's performance regarding other criteria. The evaluation of the CFP demonstrates the applicability of the analytical framework which can also be applied to other multilevel fisheries governance systems. Moreover, the results can inform reforms of Regional Fisheries Management Organisations. Like the CFP, these institutions manage transboundary fisheries and have not effectively addressed the issues of resource rent capture and resource efficiency.

Uptake and resistance: The rural poor and user-pays agricultural extension in Malawi

The shift to pluralistic agricultural extension services in Malawi sets the context for this article’s focus on the private service provider (PSP) delivery model. The role of the PSP, the alacrity and resistance of smallholder farmers to pay for PSP services, and the challenges experienced in implementing this user-pays approach are examined. We draw on the analytic framework of credibility, salience and legitimacy as germane to understanding uptake and resistance to the PSP model. This article is based on empirical data from a longitudinal qualitative study. Interviews with approximately 50 PSPs and nearly 100 stakeholders from the public, private and non governmental sectors across Malawi were supplemented with focus group discussions with 30 farmer groups in Malawi representing close to 600 smallholders. The results reveal the complexity of shifting to a user-pays system and that PSPs play important roles in delivering services that respond to farmers’ needs. What we are finding in this ongoing research is the uptake by smallholder farmers of the user-pays approach is more likely when all three characteristics of the framework for uptake are attended to – credibility, salience and legitimacy. This article compliments the extant, largely quantitative, literature on willingness to pay by qualitatively teasing out the nuances of farmers’ responses to a user-pays approach in order to explore acts of alacrity and resistance. The findings highlight some practical challenges for agricultural advisory service providers to operationalise the user-pays principle in the Malawi agricultural extension policy. This original empirical research adds to the discourse on farmer development processes. It provides an important example to be learned from in seeking to improve plurality in agricultural extension in sub-Saharan Africa.

Study of water resources management plans as a tool for integrated watershed management

ABSTRACTWater scarcity and floods caused by the effects of climate variability have been alarming and victimizing many people and alerting the authorities around the world, which has been promoting investments in the area. Nowadays, it is a global consensus that the best alternative for water resources management is the integrated approach, which combines several areas of knowledge and political organization levels for the maintenance of adequate quantity and quality of water. Therefore, the article presents an analysis of the main Brazilian watershed plans as a tool for integrated water resources management (IWRM), in comparison to selected plans from basins located in Portugal and the United States. A multicriteria analysis was performed to compare all the plans according to their completeness and quality of content. One of the greatest difficulties related to watershed plans and implementation of IWRM is the challenge of achieving the best planning strategies, elaboration and implementation. Brazil has elaborated strategies oriented to approach the challenges of water by regions, decentralization through user participation and organisms at a basin level such as the basin committees. The water concession and cost sharing based on the user-pay principle are also progressive approaches already used in Brazilian territory. In general, it was noted a superficial method of elaborating watershed plans in Brazil and the interference of political interests has been representing a problem to the quality and impartiality of the plans. On the other hand, the Portuguese and North American studied basin plans presented more descriptive characterizations. However, success of plans is more likely to be determined after applying and obtaining results regarding the qualitative and quantitative aspects of water, as well as other improvements set for the river basin.

The road mileage user-fee: Level, intensity, and predictors of public support

The road mileage user-fee is viewed as a promising alternative to the fuel tax, which in recent years has proven to be an inadequate means of financing road infrastructure. Public opposition is often thought to be a barrier to the political feasibility of the road mileage user-fee. We use a nationally representative public opinion survey to investigate the level and intensity of support for replacing the fuel tax with a general mileage user-fee and with three specific modes of administration of the fee. Our results confirm that public opposition to the adoption of mileage user-fees to address the growing revenue inadequacy of fuel taxes is high, with the number of opponents exceeding the number of supporters by a ratio of 4-1. Furthermore, public support is somewhat sensitive to respondents' belief in the user-pays principle and perceptions of the characteristics of the mode of administration. Additionally, relative to supporters, those who oppose the mileage user-fee are more likely to state that they are willing to take political action against the adoption of mileage user-fees.

Allocating runway costs using a user-pay and average-cost approach: application to Taiwanese airports

This paper develops a mechanism to allocate the costs of providing landing services at airports to different types of aircraft. Costs are classified into assignable and non-assignable items. The former is allocated by the user-pay principle, using traffic level as a key determining factor, and the latter is allocated by an average-cost approach. Land costs are included in the non-assignable category under some scenarios for analysis. The mechanism is validated at two major Taiwanese airports, Taipei Songshan Airport (TSA) and Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE), both are located in the Taipei Metropolitan area. Research results indicate that landing charges based on these allocated costs reflect the true costs of providing takeoff and landing services better than the weight-based charges. For example, the greatest landing fees charged to B747-400 at many airports based on the maximum takeoff weight is not supported by the user-pay principle. The results also provide a guideline to decide the minimum charge of each landing. Hence, it is believed that the mechanism has the potential to be applied to other airports worldwide.

Implementation of the Polluter Pays Principle: Economic Approaches to Pollution

This work presents an economic analysis of the issues surrounding pollution and the pollution pays principle (PPP) such as the conflict between economics and ecology, externalities, internalization of external costs, solutions to externalities, the economic instruments as recommended by the OECD and the European Union (EU) and their economic analysis. It describes the traditional way of reducing pollution, i.e. ‘command and control’ or CAC and the various economic instruments, i.e. emission charges and tradeable discharge permits or TDPs, overlapping between the PPP and the User Pays Principle (UPP) and the Victim Pays Principle (VPP).

Modern Transportation Funding and User-Pays Principle

Shrinking gas tax purchasing power has resulted in a growing dependence on sales taxes dedicated to local transportation to fund California roadway and transit projects. However, these new funding strategies stray from the traditional user-pays principle embodied in the gas tax and long espoused by FHWA as the fairest way to finance highway projects. After the funding sources of the Presidio Parkway (an ongoing public–private partnership project in San Francisco, California, that uses availability payments) were analyzed, it was found that federal and state gas taxes were still the largest source of funding at 53%, while federal support, tolls, and sales taxes contributed 23%, 16%, and 8%, respectively. An analysis of users of the facility, in the form of commuters who use private cars and bus transit to access downtown from the surrounding San Francisco and North Bay areas, revealed that individual contributions through a host of transportation taxes and fees were minuscule when compared with the annual availability payments received by the concessionaire. Commuters’ average annual contribution to the new facility was found to range from $3 to $29, which was orders of magnitude less than the $548 annual contribution that calculations showed would be required if the project were to be supported solely by tolls. These findings highlighted the trend in current highway construction financing strategies that subsidized commuters who were unwilling to pay the full cost of transportation infrastructure with broad-based taxes collected regardless of benefits accrued to the individual.

E-Toll Roads: Analysing a Case of Collective Moral Disengagement in an e-Government Project

There has been little research that examines how public managers involved in e-government decisionmaking can sometimes negatively affect the welfare of citizens and waste public resources. case study analyses collective moral disengagement mechanisms used by leaders and their subordinates to justify a controversial urban e-tolling project in South Africa. Using deductive content analysis, legal documents and public records were coded for modes of moral disengagement. results show that public managers morally exonerated their decision: by endowing it with socially worthy purposes; euphemistic labelling; displacing and diffusing responsibility; downplaying negative consequences; making favourable comparisons; and disparaging and blaming opposing groups. Enhancements to existing governance frameworks and broader societal safeguards are recommended to prevent moral transgressions and improve e-government decisionmaking. Specific tactics for reputation rebuilding are also recommended when the publicity of alleged moral transgressions is high. Further research is needed to investigate how e-government leaders and broader social actors can engage public managers to enhance transparency and accountability. CASE STUDY CONTEXT: E TOLLING PROJECT IN LIMBO research is conducted on one of South Africa's most controversial e-government projects - the Gauteng Open Road Tolling (ORT) project. project, initiated in 2006, has sparked a challenge from various groups in civil society and has been embroiled in a lengthy legal battle. South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL), a state-owned enterprise, is primarily responsible for the financing, development, maintenance and rehabilitation of South Africa's 16 170km national road network. Its activities include non-toll and toll operations. Toll roads are self-funding based on the user-pays principle. SANRAL has used two types of tolling: traditional toll collection at a toll plaza; and electronic toll collection (ETC), where either credit cards or an electronic transponder system (e-tag) identifies the vehicle and allows it to pass. Most of the conventional tolls are on newly built routes for long distance destinations, mainly found on regional roads. There has been increasing interest in private toll roads as an alternative way of meeting highway needs. SANRAL has partnered with private entities to design and build the facilities and manage these operations. controversial ORT project intends to use overhead gantries approximately every 10km along Gauteng's existing urban highway system to collect toll fees electronically. gantries are fitted with electronic readers that recognise vehicle identifiers such as e-tags or vehicle number plates - and are set to automatically deduct toll fees from a road user's registered e-toll account. Users would be serviced by a complex of service channels including a call centre and website, e-toll kiosks and e-tag outlets at various shopping malls, and e-toll customer-service centres situated along the freeway network. SANRAL has also procured a central account management and clearing system, and established a violations processing centre as part of the operation. Lack of transparency has been the hallmark of the e-toll project. Public managers voiced their reluctance to share vital information. For instance SANRAL initially refused to disclose details of the Electronic Toll Collection Joint Venture: The information requested by Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (OUTA) is and remains the intellectual property of third party organisations (SAPA, 2012a).The decision to use a foreign company instead of stimulating the development of local technology was also questionable. Headquartered in Austria, the e-tolling and traffic solutions firm and the largest shareholder in the e-tolling consortium, reported in the 2010/11 financial year that its road solutions projects segment, under which e-tolling falls, grew 247% year-on-year (Rasool, 2012). According to the CEO: This positive development resulted largely from electronic toll collection system implementations in SA and Poland (ibid). Opponents claim that the Government Employee Pension Fund (GEPF) holding R15.7 billion in SANRAL bonds was another reason for the lack of transparency (ibid). Some critics argued that this conflict of interest was the real reason government insisted on pursuing the project, despite its unfeasibility and despite it facing public resistance (ibid).

Towards a more sustainable surface raw water tariff structure in the Vaal basin : a situational analysis

With an increasingly urbanised population, further study was necessary to determine if water could be used more efficiently by applying efficient tariff structures in combination with decision support tools in the form of models. This paper highlighted challenges towards establishing a sustainable surface raw water tariff structure. Limitations of using the pollute-pays principle for setting a surface raw water tariff structure within a highly urbanised environment were noted. A tariff structure in the Upper and Middle Vaal Water management Areas which are part of the Vaal basin in South Africa was shown to promote inequity such that a downstream user paid more for using more polluted water. Recommendations specific to the Vaal basin included adopting a user-pays principle and also use of a model that incorporated variability in surface raw water quality for tariff setting and also for purposes of predicting potable water treatment costs. Key words: Polluter-pays principle, sustainable tariff structure, urbanised population, user-pays principle, Vaal basin.

O Protetor-Recebedor no Direito Ambiental

Para atingir o objetivo de preservar o meio ambiente existem diversos mecanismos legais já amplamente discutidos e efetivados. Contudo, a degradação ambiental continua crescendo. Então, para aprimorar a preservação do equilíbrio ambiental, surgem novas ferramentas que buscam propiciar a conservação ambiental, retribuindo, com uma compensação financeira, aquele que cumpre a legislação e presta serviços relevantes à melhoria do ambiente. Nesse sentido, o presente artigo faz uma breve análise do Direito Ambiental Brasileiro com seus princípios e instrumentos que visam à conservação e preservação do meio ambiente, propondo desenvolver e aprimorar a ideia do pagamento por serviços ambientais, também conhecido como protetor-recebedor, em complementação ao princípio do poluidor-pagador e usuário-pagador. O objetivo é discutir essa possibilidade no atual ordenamento jurídico brasileiro, mediante uma revisão da legislação brasileira e da bibliografia especializada, concluindo que benefícios financeiros podem ser concedidos àqueles que preservam o meio ambiente, como forma de incentivo e aprimoramento da Política Nacional do Meio Ambiente.