Environmental technology expenditure

The scope of this effort is approximately 300 million per year, about half of which is devoted to Global Change research. Research in biodiversity and ecosystem dynamics accounts for nearly a quarter of total expenditures. Although Chemistry is a relatively small participant, it is part of a rapidly growing interest in environmental technology within NSF, and is linked to environmentally conscious manufacturing, mitigation of the effects of toxic substances and natural disasters, and improvement of air and water quality. 

The EPA argues that the cost of compliance to environmental regulations is small in comparison to baseline industry expenditures. However, there are many hidden costs that oftentimes are not considered when contemplating a control technology investment, and which can escalate and adversely impact on bottom-line economic performance. These so-called other costs include, but are not limited to ... 

The second phase is the feasibility study. This stage may require the expenditure of 1 to 2% of the total project cost. Thus for a 1,000 million project about 20 million will be required. This will define the location, feedstock and product market and the technology to be used. It will also typically encompass outline regulatory approval and assessment of environmental impacts. The error in the estimate is typically not less than about +/-10%. Financiers (bankers and corporate boards) like the error to be +1-5%. This level of estimate can usually only be achieved by a FEED study. 

Environmental concerns are here to stay. They can be viewed as a threat requiring ever increasing expenditure on end of pipe technologies to meet ever-increasing legislation or they can be viewed as an opportunity to introduce cleaner processes, which are more efficient and cost effective. 

The problem of managing the climate and environment system can be viewed as a general optimization problem how should one deploy the finite resources available to humankind to achieve a sustainable development path that optimizes the human welfare of both the present and future generations The task is to find an optimal balance between environmental protection efforts (in the forms of labor expenditures, human and capital investments, technological development, etc.) and the loss of welfare in other sectors relevant to human well-being (such as industrial development and the production of consumer goods, arising from the redeployment of the resources used to protect the environment from other economic activities). 

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