Environmental Economics
RPA Ltd specializes in providing environmental economics services, which play a crucial role in informing decision making on policies, regulations, programs, and specific projects. The application of environmental economics involves using a consistent set of tools and principles across various decision contexts, addressing a wide range of issues such as chemicals, the marine environment, flooding and erosion, energy, and climate change, among others.
The main objective of applying environmental economics in decision making is to ensure that all impacts, both positive and negative, are taken into account. To achieve this, all impacts are expressed in a common unit, ideally monetary terms. This approach allows for direct comparisons of different impacts through cost-benefit analysis. By quantifying and valuing environmental costs and benefits, decision makers can compare the financial costs of an action with the broader environmental costs and benefits, enabling more informed decision making.
Valuing environmental goods, services, and impacts is a complex task that requires extensive expertise and familiarity with available tools and methods. RPA has been a pioneer in applying these methods in the UK and Europe since the early 1990s, working closely with regulators and policymakers.
In addition to traditional approaches, RPA also embraces the ‘ecosystem services approach,’ which is a more recent and increasingly popular method for assessing nonmarket goods and services. This approach involves recognizing and valuing the services provided by the environment and ecosystems as valuable assets. By including these assets in economic assessments of costs and benefits for projects, RPA can tailor mitigation and compensation measures to ensure that the same benefits provided by the environment are not lost.
Overall, RPA’s environmental economics services ensure that decision makers have a comprehensive understanding of the full range of impacts associated with their actions. By quantifying and valuing these impacts, RPA helps clients make more informed decisions that account for environmental costs, benefits, and the preservation of ecosystem services.