Environmental and resource costs Lessons learned from ECO2 WG2B April 22-23, 2004

ECO2 mandate from WG2B Clarify concept of environmental and resource costs in the EU Water Framework Directive

Role environmental and resource costs in the WFD Art. 9: (full) cost-recovery assessment Art. 9: Pricing/tariff setting Annex III/Art.4: Cost-benefit analysis (CBA)

Questions identified in ECO2 What What are we talking about? How How do we measure them? Why What do we use them for?

ECO2 Mission What are we talking about? How do we measure them? What do we use them for? WE NEED A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK WE NEED TO ADVISE WHEN TO USE WHICH APPROACH WE NEED TO ADVISE HOW TO USE OUTCOMES FOR DIFFERENT PURPOSES

or Significant pressure Impact on (a)biotic water environment Damage to water environment Damage to other water uses Measures taken to prevent/avoid/mitigate? Costs of these measures Effect of these measures: standards met? yes no Costs of additional measures Direct or indirect valuation method or Estimation of external environmental costs

Main messages from ECO2 Different costs for different purposes Different non-contradictory methods to estimate ERC: based on cost estimates based on benefit estimates Choice for either approach depends on: use or purpose (required) reliability and accuracy estimates data availability Estimation depends on physical chars water system; hence link to IMPRESS vital

Results Draft paper dealing with: Clear framework, definitions and terminology Which approach for which purpose? Practical illustrations Links with IMPRESS ECO2 paper available end of May Workshop (proceedings) Amsterdam, 26 March 2004 Dissemination knowledge and experiences Sharing information from ECO2 Illustration European case study examples Workshop proceedings available end of April

How to proceed? Knowledge and data gaps Data: get to work gaining more experiences through practical applications in MS Knowledge gaps coordinated (EU) research regarding validity & reliability estimation methods Later: coordinated efforts with IMPRESS At present difference in phase and abstraction level both groups For now: further activities of ECO2 less urgent To be reconsidered after an analysis of the Art.5 reports in 2005