Country Briefings

The Economics of Industrial Pollution Control research team relies upon its country partners for data, insights, and experience. Work has focused on seven countries: Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and Philippines. This section provides reviews of results and descriptions of work with these partners.

(Please use the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view  PDF files)

Related Resources
Document Library

Contact information for the environmental agencies of the world.

Industrial Pollution Research Partners

• CETESB, Sao Paulo, Brazil
• FEEMA, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil
• Fundacao Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica (IBGE), Brazil
• SEPA, China
• Ministerio del Medio Ambiente, Colombia
• BAPEDAL, Indonesia
• INE and PROFEPA in SEMARNAP, Mexico
• DENR, Philippines

Brazil

• Background on Brazil's pollution regulation efforts.
• Information in Pollution Management: The New Model
  Part of a comprehensive World Bank report on Brazil entitled "Brazil: Managing Pollution Problems, The Brown Environmental Agenda", Report #16635-BR, June 27, 1997
• Brazil: Managing Environmental Pollution in the State of Rio de Janeiro.
  The objective of this report was to assist the Government of the State of Rio de Janeiro in the development and implementation of more effective pollution management policies. This report addresses pollution from most sectors, including industry, transport, and sanitation.
• Brazil: Managing Pollution Problems - The Brown Environmental Agenda, February 27, 1998 Report No. 16635-BR
  Brazil suffers from a range of different pollution problems which cause real economic damage in terms of human health, quality of life and ecological losses.
• Determinants of Environmental Performance in the Brazilian Industrial Sector, Ronaldo Seroa da Motta, Research Institute of Applied Econmics (IPEA), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, December 2003
• Public Involvement in Industrial Pollution Control in Brazil and Argentina

China

The Industry/Environment Team in the World Bank’s Development Research Group (DRG) has been collaborating with country partners in China since October, 1994. Susmita Dasgupta and Hua Wang have led the work for DRG, while senior professionals from China’s State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) have taken primary responsibility in China. The SEPA/DRG team has worked closely with a number of institutions in China, including:

• Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences (CRAES)
• China National Environmental Monitoring Center (CNEMC)
• Environmental Economics group of the Renmin University of China (RUC)
• Environmental Economics group of Tsinghua University (TU)
• Tianjin Environmental Protection Bureau (TEPB)
• Tianjin Environmental Protection Institute (TEPI)
• Tianjin Environmental Monitoring Center (TEMC)

China Related Papers

• Industrial Enviornmental Performance in China: The Impact of Inspections, by Susmita Dasgupta, Benoit Laplante, Nlandu Mamingi, and Hua Wang
• Pollution Charge, Community Pressure and Abatement Cost: "An Analysis of Chinese Industries" by Hua Wang (January 2000)

China Data

• China Air/Water Pollution Intensities: Estimates of Pollution Load Per Value of Output from Plants
• Ambient water pollutant concentrations in major Chinese rivers

Colombia

• The process and results of Colombia's ongoing efforts to implement a pollution charge system in the Rio Negro basin are described in two formats--an audio-video presentation and a click-through version.
• "Preserving Our Environment" video by The World Bank, featuring the Colombia pollution charge program. 
  [Note: this is an audio file and requires RealAudio player  version 3.0 or more recent.]
  The video was produced by the World Bank's Global Links Television program and premiered at the Environmental Film Festival in Washington, DC.
• EcoAmericas, a monthly magazine on development and environment in Latin America featured the Colombia program as the centerpiece in its March 2000 edition. 
  The article is reproduced with permission from the publisher.

Related Sites

• Institutes of Latin American Studies

India

• Informal Regulation of Pollution in a Developing Country: Empirical Evidence from India, by Vinish Kathuria, SANDEE Working Paper No. 6-04

Indonesia

The Economics of Industrial Pollution Control team has been exploring the effects of information release on polluter behavior and been closely involved in PROPER-PROKASIH, an innovative program initiated by BAPEDAL, Indonesia's Environmental Impact Management Agency. This program gives participating plants color-coded "grades" indicating their compliance with pollution regulations. "Gold" means the plant is world-class, while "Black" means it serious violation of regulation and doing serious damage to the environment or community. PROPER-PROKASIH is in its second year and preliminary results suggest it has had a positive impact on polluter behavior as well as BAPEDAL's capacity for regulation.

• Summary of the March 1997 PROPER PROKASIH Evaluation
• July 1997 DEC Notes Newsletter Overview
• Interview with Nabiel Makarim, August 26, 1996,
  [Note: this is an audio file and requires RealAudio player  version 3.0 or more recent.]
  Nabiel Makarim is the Deputy for Pollution Control at the Environmental Impact and Management Agency (BAPEDAL), Government of Indonesia. Mr. Makarim, who has studied at MIT and Harvard, is a pioneer in the application of non-regulatory approaches to environmental management. Some of his most successful environmental programs are PROKASIH (Clean River management program), PROPER (public disclosure program), and ADIPURA (Clean City Program). Under his leadership BAPEDAL is developing and applying several innovative programs for air pollution control and hazardous waste management.
• Putting Pressure on Polluters: Indonesia’s PROPER Program case study by Afsah and Vincent.
  [Reprinted with permission of the Harvard Institute for International Development.]

Mexico

Mexico Related Papers

• Clean Technological Change in Developing-Country Industrial Clusters: Mexican Leather Tanning" RFF Discussion by Allen Blackman and Arne Kildegarrd.  Paper 03-13.
• Informal Sector Pollution Control: What Policy Options Do We Have? 
  Allen Blackman, RFF Discussion Paper, December 1999.
• Mexico: The Guadalajara Environmental Management Pilot
  Mexico Department and the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Sector Management Unit, Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Office, Report No. 18071-ME, September 8, 1998.

Mexico Data

• Mexico Air Pollution Intensities
• Quantifying Environmental Performance Survey

Philippines

Ecowatch

• EcoWatch Information Program, 1997, introduced by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in the Philippines.
  • Excerpts from a speech by President Ramos who spoke about environmental issues in his five year review including references to EcoWatch.   
  • 1997 Annual Report by DENR which also discusses EcoWatch.
• Press Release of Parial List of Polluting Firms in Metro Manila by DENR
• 1998 Statement by DENR's Elmer Mercado regarding Ecowatch
• DENR-National Capital Region Industrial Ecowatch Project Industry Rating

Press Coverage on Ecowatch (all articles reprinted with permission).

• July 9, 1998 press release by DENR--Implementation of Industrial Ecowatch System
• Business and Environment--The Race To Protect the Laguna De Bay Region, by J.J. Bacallan, January-February 1997.
• Manila Times--Info Age Can Let the Sun Shine In, May 1997.
• Philippine Daily Inquirer--Computers to List Firms Polluting Environment, April 29, 1997
• Manila Standard--Rating System for 2,000 Industries in Manila Set, December 9, 1996.

Background Materials

• Going Public on Polluters in Indonesia:  BAPEDAL's PROPER PROKASIH Program
• PROPER document description. Reputational Incentives for Pollution Control in Indonesia.
• Español del programa de información pública y de "PROPER".
  [English: Spanish-language interpretation of public disclosure and the PROPER program.]
• Regulation in the Information Age: Indonesian Public Information Program for Environmental Management, by Afsah, et al.

Related Resources

• The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has created the "Chemical Scorecard" at  http://www.scorecard.org to "give people the information they need to identify chemical hazards, so they can avoid potential health risks and press for better safety information from the companies responsible for releasing these chemicals."  The site allows users to find out what firms are releasing chemicals, what is known or suspected about the toxicity of chemicals, and how to get in touch with policy-makers.  Critics say the data is incomplete or out-of-date and the focus on "risk" is misleading.
• The US EPA has released the first generation of its Sector Facility Indexing Project (SFIP) SFIP brings together environmental and other information from a number of data systems to produce facility-level profiles for five industry sectors (petroleum refining, iron and steel production, primary nonferrous metal refining and smelting, pulp manufacturing, and automobile assembly).
• Environment Agency of Japan
• Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition's Eco-maps Project.
  Online maps with precise locations of toxic chemical sources and concentrations, contaminated groundwater, Superfund sites, facilities with permits to discharge wasterwater, and hazardous waste storage areas.

Document Library

The following policy research working papers by the NIPR team are drawn from the World Bank's institutional archives. Each link opens a page with an abstract of the document and several download options. You can also download other related documents. These include content-rich current outputs not stored in the institutional archives.