Air Quality SPD
Appendix 3 – Damage Costs: calculations and example
Damage costs are the costs to society (mainly health) per tonne of pollutant emitted. They provide an easy reckoning of the monetised value of changes in pollution. The Government publishes damage costs for NOx and PM and also provides an Emission Factor Toolkit to allow the calculation of the emissions from schemes over the coming years.
Applicants calculating damage costs should incorporate the following:
- The most recent version of the Emission Factor Toolkit
- Both NOx and PM to be considered
- Appropriate HGV % traffic split to be used
- Traffic speed of 30km / hour to be used
- The appropriate damage cost category as advised by the Council' Environmental Health Team
The following example outlines the damage cost calculation process for an urban mixed-use development outside London, to be operational in 2019, including residential development in 2 blocks and a hotel. The trip generation for the residential scheme is low due to less than 50% parking level per dwelling, including 25% provision of electric vehicle charging points (and a further 25% potential) and cycle stores. The hotel scheme includes 100+ space parking provision. Service deliveries to both the residential and hotel scheme are also considered.
The scheme is categorised as 'outer conurbation (not London)' for damage costs.
Step 1 – Using the trip increase for each aspect of the scheme calculate the annual emissions of NOx and PM (in tonnes) for each of the 5 years from opening
| |
Projected yearly emissions (Defra Emission Factor Toolkit v8) |
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| |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
|
Residential NOx |
129.73952 |
120.58516 |
110.44020 |
100.85574 |
92.75155 |
|
Residential PM |
11.50558 |
11.31002 |
11.17497 |
11.06880 |
10.98908 |
|
Hotel NOx |
506.79502 |
471.03580 |
431.40703 |
393.96773 |
362.31073 |
|
Hotel PM |
44.94366 |
44.17977 |
43.65224 |
43.23749 |
42.92610 |
|
Deliveries NOx |
477.56736 |
409.78076 |
347.56394 |
296.07882 |
256.18598 |
|
Deliveries PM |
32.62307 |
31.71858 |
30.96677 |
30.38716 |
29.94013 |
|
Total NOx (kg) |
1,114.1019 |
1,001.4017 |
889.41117 |
790.90229 |
711.24826 |
|
Total PM (kg) |
98.07231 |
87.20837 |
85.79398 |
84.69345 |
83.85531 |
|
Total NOx (t) |
1.1141019 |
1.0014017 |
0.8894111 |
0.7909022 |
0.7112482 |
|
Total PM (t) |
0.0980723 |
0.0872083 |
0.0857939 |
0.0846934 |
0.0838553 |
Step 2 – Using the selected damage cost category, uplift the 2015 prices provided by the IGCB by 2% per annum to reflect the correct cost in each of the first 5 years from opening
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Price per tonne of pollutant in projected years (Defra IGCB) |
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| |
2015 price/tonne |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
|
NOx |
£31,776 |
£34,395 |
£35,083 |
£35,784 |
£36,500 |
£37,230 |
|
PM |
£87,770 |
£95,003 |
£96,903 |
£98,841 |
£100,817 |
£102,833 |
Step 3 – Multiply the tonnage of emissions for each pollutant by the damage cost price for each year. Provide a cumulative total for 5 years
| |
Damage Costs |
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| |
2019 (year 1) |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 (year 5) |
|
NOx |
£38,319 |
£35,132 |
£31,826 |
£28,867 |
£26,479 |
|
PM |
£9,317 |
£8,450 |
£8,479 |
£8,538 |
£8,623 |
|
Totals (cumulative) |
£47,636 |
£91,218 |
£131,523 |
£168,928 |
£204,030 |