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ECO313
Environmental Economics and Policies
Winter 2025
Writing Assignment


Rubric:
The main purpose of this research is finding real world cases or projects in the area of your selected
topic, which show how economic and market mechanisms are used to solve or reduce the negative
impacts of economics activities on the environment. Please see below for the list of topics and see
the last page for the administrative instructions. The cases should be selected such that you are
able to analyse and compare them in terms how effective they have been in solving environmental
problems, who have been involved in the project (government/private sector …), and how financially
sustainable these programs have been in achieving their environmental targets, ….

In order to help you, your paper should include, among other things, the following steps. Please note
that your final paper must have a complete article structure from introduction to conclusion and
references with an internal coherence. These steps, as a rubric, are just to help you to organize your
paper, what you are expected to include, and their weights in the marking scheme. Therefore, do not
treated them like questions to be answered mechanically.
1)- Find a few actual real world implemented projects or programs in the area of your topic.
(25 points)
2)- Discuss the environmental problem(s) that these projects or programs are supposed to deal with.
(10 points)
3)- Very briefly review the economic theory underlying the solution(s) implemented in your cases to
solve the abovementioned environmental problem(s). Please note that in this essay we focus on
economic tools, policies, and market mechanisms to solve the environmental problems. The theory
part must be brief, just a few paragraphs. (10 points)
4)- You can discuss and review many projects, but you need to expand at least a few of them in more
details to compare them, in terms of the incentive structure (the role of private/government in the
project), managerial and implementation structures, geographical coverage, sectoral coverage, the final
outcomes and effectiveness of the programs to achieve the goals (whether they were successful or
unsuccessful). (40 points)
5)- General organization, quality of presentation, creativity and elaboration of the paper and also
proper referencing. (15 points)


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1)- Choice of the real-world projects/cases
Excellent Good Fair Poor
25 25 - 21 20 - 14 13 - 8 7 - 0

2)- Reviewing the environmental problems and their causes that the programs are supposed to
solve.
Excellent Good Fair Poor
10 10 - 9 8 - 7 6 - 4 3 - 0

3)- Reviewing the economic theory underlying the programs
Excellent Good Fair Poor
10 10 - 9 8 - 7 6 - 4 3 - 0

4)- Main analysis and comparison of the projects/programs
Excellent Good Fair Poor
40 40 - 31 30 - 21 20 - 11 10 - 0

5)- General quality and organization of the essay
Excellent Good Fair Poor
15 15 - 13 12 - 9 8 - 5 4 - 0


Topics:

Here are the topics, including some extra hints about how you can approach each topic. The cases
mentioned here are just some examples, you do not need to work on all the mentioned countries. You
can pick different cases, countries, or regions:

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1)- Markets for biodiversity conservation
There are at least 33 countries implementing different programs for biodiversity conservation.
Examples are negotiated agreement in Brazil that rubber tappers receive payments from government
for forest conservation services that they provide by their resource management. In Guyana,
Conservation International obtained a conservation concession from government to save 20000 acres
of forest. In the USA, some farmers receive payments for removing sensitive land from production to
prevent land degradation. Or just recently, the state of Queensland, Australia, transferred the
ownership of the world oldest rainforest to an indigenous group (traditional owners), to manage and
preserve the forest resources and also their own culture. Another case is the case of management of
elephants in Zimbabwe and Botswana.

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2)- Markets for carbon capture and sequestration
Recently, Elon Musk said he plans to set a $100 Million prize for the best carbon capture technology.
Note that your essay should focus on the economic aspects not engineering and technological side of
the cases.


3)- Carbon offsets and carbon credits
Carbon trade exchanges and carbon offset exchanges.
Almost every day, you hear about different companies announcing their net-zero emission targets. So,
this means there are increasing number of companies in the demand side and supply side of carbon
capture services. There are at least 27 countries involved in payment schemes for carbon
sequestration. In fact, a majority of the schemes are at the global level, registered under the Kyoto
Protocol’s “Activities Implemented Jointly”, however, the roll of the private sector is increasing, and
the scale of trading schemes is rising. Here are the topics related to supply, demand, and exchange
(market) sides, just to make sure your focus is narrow and manageable in your essay.
=====================================================================
4)- Market for groundwater and surface water
To manage and allocate the scarce water resources more efficiently, markets for trading surface and
ground water have been created in the US California (after Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,
SGMA), Australia, and India, as an examples.
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5)- Landscape services
Landscape services are associated with the aesthetic and cultural value of specific sites and may
involve the protection of cultural sanctuaries or natural heritage sites. There are currently at least 50
examples of payment schemes, mostly very small, short-term, site-specific, without any sophistication.
With the emergence of “ecotourism”, many governments attempt to establish schemes in national level
(like in EU, Canada, and Nepal).
=====================================================================
6)- Biodiversity offsets
The concept of offsets goes back to the idea of “wetland banking” in the US, where “banks” are
established for anyone who wishes to drain a wetland can purchase credits from someone who has
restored or created a wetland elsewhere and deposited it in the “wetland”.
Now, the concept is expanding to biodiversity offsets in many other countries, like Habitat Banking in
Germany, or the Environment Bank in the UK. Or schemes in developing countries, like the Business
Offsets Program that has pilot projects in Africa (Ghana, Madagascar, and South Africa). Other
examples are including cases in the US and New Zealand, involved with mining companies. Please
review the course notes and reading materials about biodiversity offset.
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Emission charges and taxes

7)- Carbon tax, or taxes on any types of emission to air, or taxes on emission to water (BOD,
pesticides, …)

8)- Fees for solid waste disposal to landfills
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For following topics, you can find, review, and compare programs in the US, Canada, Europe, or other
countries. The programs should be analysed in terms of their costs, structure, geographical and
sectoral coverage, involved players (government, private sector companies, …), and the results and
effectiveness.
9)- Tradable permit schemes for any types of discharge to air, water, soil, ...

10)- Tradable permit schemes for fishing industry
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Administrative aspects:

- The project should be done by each student independently and alone. You should let me know
following information by email (to masoud.anjomshoa@utoronto.ca), by March 2:
- Your name and student ID Number.
- A list of six topics from the previous page, in order of your preference. I will choose and let
you know your topic. You cannot change your topic after my approval. You cannot start
or finish the essay without my approval of the topic.

- The quality of analysis always matters more than quantity. But your assignment should be around
2000 words (around 8 pages), excluding the references, graphs, and tables.

- You should report all your references. You can choose any citation format, but it should be used
consistently along your essay. As you know plagiarism is a violation that is prosecuted based on the
university rules. In order to find help for writing, referencing methods, avoiding plagiarism, please
consult with following website: http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/using-sources

- The assignment must be submitted before March 30, at 9:00pm, sharp through Quercus (one week
extension compared to the course outline). The assignment must include your name and student
ID Number, on the cover page, otherwise your marks may not be recorded correctly.

-The only acceptable submission format is ONE file in PDF format, including everything. The name
of the file must be: ECO313_Topic#_lastname.pdf
For example, for topic#6, biodiversity offsets: ECO313_06_Smith.pdf

- You must start the project early to avoid the last-minute rush, or last-minute technical issues or
sickness, … The deadline will not be extended. If you miss this assessment, according to the outline,
it cannot be substituted by anything else. There will be a 20% penalty for each day of late submission.
No late submission will be accepted after 5 days. If you submit your paper even one minute after
midnight, it is assumed one whole day late.

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