Since environmental policy measures may have many impacts that are linked to each other in both physical and socio-economic respect, the need for tools to assess this variety of impacts is growing. In this proposal the main aim is to develop a methodology to identify, categorise and quantify the environmental co-benefits and co-damages of environmental policies related to climate change and long-range transboundary air pollution. The focus on such side effects is translated in this proposal as using the systems perspective, a core concept in the field of Industrial Ecology. Placing this research in an Industrial Ecology framework will introduce or strengthen the focus on material flows in society as an addition to current Integrated Assessment tools like RAINS and IMAGE. Two cases will be used in this study to provide a practical framework in which the methodology will be developed. They will also be used to test the robustness of this methodology. Current policies with regard to climate change and long-range transboundary air pollution will be used as a baseline. The first case will be chosen from the realm of the chlorinated air pollutants. In this case the methodology will be tested on a selected set of representative policy measures like phasing out of certain specific compounds or the introduction of some specific emission reduction targets. Next to this relatively simple case a more complex case will consider a transition from the current fossil fuels based economy to a hydrogen economy. This case is chosen because it refers to an economy wide transition and therefore can be used as a test of the boundaries of applicability of the methodology. Furthermore, focusing on large-scale transitions fits well with the current national environmental policy (NMP 4). 

Kleijn, R. and E. van der Voet Co-benefits & Co-damages of environmental policies: using the principles of Industrial Ecology in Environmental Policy Making. With the case of PVC.In: Proceedings of The Fifth International Conference on EcoBalance - Practical tools and thoughtful principles for sustainability. 6-8 November 2002, Tsukuba, Japan. The Society of Non-Traditional Technology, 2002, Tokyo, Japan.