Existing and potential policies for reducing smoke pollution in Christchurch City

Abstract

For many years it has been recognised that substances emitted into the air may accumulate to undesirable or unacceptable levels, giving rise to the culturally-determined phenomenon known as pollution. In Christchurch, smoke arising from the combustion of carbonaceous fuels is but one such substance. It is, however, arguably the one that has been apparent for the longest time and which has generated the greatest public concern. It is also the only non-industrial air pollutant that any significant institutional arrangements have been developed to control.

As with any resource management issue the situation involves a conflict of values. In its widest sense the conflict is over the value of "clean" air in Christchurch - how much are we as a society prepared to give up in return for an "acceptable" quality of air?) The particular problem examined in this report is but part of this wider issue - what are the means available by which to achieve it?

The report in fact has two goals: to evaluate the effectiveness of existing institutional arrangements for reducing smoke pollution in Christchurch, and to suggest alternative or additional arrangements that might be considered in the future. These goals are examined in five chapters: the first three examine the history of legislative and other attempts to control smoke emission from domestic premises and their effectiveness; the last two discuss both recently suggested and original options for reducing smoke concentration in the future. More specifically, Chapter One deals with the historical context of the problem, examining the history of concern about smoke levels in Christchurch air and the non-legal attempts that have been made to reduce it. Chapter Two reviews the legal controls over smoke emissions from domestic premises in three sections. First, legislation prior to 1972 is discussed, then the provisions of the Clean Air Act 1972 for setting up clean air zones are reviewed and finally, the implementation of these provisions in the Christchurch Clean Air Zone is described. The success of the clean air zone regulations and the associated policy instruments of publicity and incentives in reducing Christchurch smoke pollution is discussed in Chapter Three. In the fourth chapter, the potential effectiveness and implications of additional policy instruments that have recently been publicly suggested are critically examined. Finally, the effectiveness and implications of previously unconsidered policy instruments developed from the field of welfare economics are discussed in Chapter Five. The report concludes with a set of recommendations that might be considered by administrative authorities in future policy decisions.