A model for estimating pollution emissions for individual economic activities

To be effective, environmental policies must be informed by reliable assessments of the impact of economic activities. In turn, such impact assessments require comprehensive information on the pollution profiles of particular activities. In most countries and for many activities, such an information base does not exist. This article contributes to the environmental impact assessment process by introducing a method for filling part of the information gap with respect to industrial activities. It presents a pollution-estimation model that draws from published sources of information and allows analysts to obtain order-of-magnitude estimates of the pollution generated by an industrial activity. As an illustration, the model is applied to estimate the air emissions of a petroleum refinery under two different operating scenarios. Thus, it provides its potential users—policy-makers operating in a context of information scarcity—with a means to review the operation and pollution-generation characteristics of any industry in a comprehensive and rigorous manner.