Air Quality SPD

Ended on the 17 October 2018

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)


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


Price per tonne of pollutant in projected years (Defra IGCB)


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


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


For instructions on how to use the system and make comments, please see our help guide.
back to top back to top