ABSTRACT
In 1989 the Dutch Government published the National Environmental Policy Plan (NEPP). In this plan it was stated that, by the year 2000, certain maximum allowable risk levels for waste streams to the environment should not be exceeded and that by 2010 those risk levels should be negligible.
The NEPP requires reductions in the national emissions and discharges of 50-70 % by 2000 and 80-90 % by 2010 compared to the emission/discharge levels in 1 985. It was realised that these targets could not be met by solely issuing new legislation, as this is often a lengthy procès which does not normally lead to cost effective solutions. It was therefore proposed that legislation be supplemented by voluntary agreements, (Environmental Covenants), between government and industry sectors on how to achieve these reductions.
In august 1992, the Dutch E&P industry started discussions with the government about an Environmental Covenant. It is expected that a Covenant will be finalised early 1994.
To support the Covenant discussions profiles of the different emissions to water, air and soil have been calculated up to 2010 and a methodology has been developed to help identify how the E&P industry should allocate the finite resources available to enable it to make the largest contribution to the achievement of the NEPP goals.
The methodology combines the available scientific data, current emission levels, and societal preferences to estimate overall preference factors for unit reductions in the various E&P industry emissions and discharges.
These factors are used with conventional evaluation methods to establish the relative environmental cost effectiveness of a portfolio of possible environmental improvement projects. After ranking on the basis of cost-effectiveness, marginal and cumulative cost-benefit curves and tables are produced which can be used for project selection.
