EVALUATION OF VOLUNTARY MANAGEMENT PLANS FOR TOXIC AIR POLLUTANTS IN JAPAN

Abstract

 In this paper, we evaluate the second period Voluntary Management Plans of industry associations for toxic air pollutants in Japan using the emission data of dichloromethane during 2001-2003. Because ISO14001 adoption is likely to affect facilities' performances in the emission reduction during the period, we control its impact in order to avoid overestimating the effect of the Plans. Our analysis reports two results. When we use the difference measure, the result shows that if a facility participates in the Plans, it decreases the air pollutant at significantly greater level than the one that does not participate in the Plans. However, when we use proportion measure, it does not show the same result. These results imply that facilities with greater emission levels are more likely to participate in the Plans; but that the facilities that participated in the Plans before the second period may have already reached the levels very close to their limitations in the second period.