External costs of Transportation Case study : maritime transport

A sustainable transport system needs a cost accounting and full cost-pricing systems reflecting economicfactors which originate from transport activity inhibiting sustainable development (namely, externalities; spillovereffects and non-priced inter-sectorial linkages; public goods; uncompetitive markets; myopic planning horizonsand high discount rates; risk and uncertainty, irreversibility and policy failures) (Panaytou, 1992). The evaluationof the impacts of transport enables policy analysis to formulate tools to avoid, reduce or compensate such costs,as well as to make optimal trade-off between environmental protection and other economic and social objectives(Quinet, 2003). In particular, there is a consensus that environmental effects (externalities) should be included inthe assessment of projects and policies in order to define effective policy instruments for dealing with pollutionentailed by transport. This report defines a comprehensive framework for the assessment of maritime externalcosts that has been chosen as case study. In order to do so, this report is organized in two sections: (i)identification of all environmental impacts of maritime transport (at sea and in ports) and a detailed analysis forthose already studied in previous researches in literature; (ii)Estimation of identified environmental impactsfocusing on those related to air pollutants.