Nye Veje i Miljøøkonomi: Decentralisering og Smart Contracts

Abstract

Pollution affects the earth and our future, which is why it is important to focus on how to reduce the excessive emissions we are seeing today. The current approach for addressing the problem does not lead to sufficient reduction in the level of pollution; hence it is highly relevant to look for alternative ways to regulate and guide behaviour. In this paper, a decentralised regulatory principle - the Beneficiary-Compensates Principle (BCP) (Gudmundsson et al. 2024) - is analysed as a supplement to the current pollution regulation. The BCP proposes reward rather than punishment – that is, those who reduce their pollution are compensated for their reduction, instead of the general approach where polluters are penalised. The decentralised aspect is included in the principle’s implementation using blockchain technology and the use of smart contracts to facilitate compensation. In the analysis, we explore the need for perfect knowledge about the benefits, as well as the realism behind the assumption of quasilinear preferences. In addition, we look at the challenges associated with the implementation phase. All this is summarised in the discussion, where we consider, among other things, in which scenarios BCP can be successfully implemented and whether these scenarios are also those where the current handling falls short. The scenarios we discuss are at the local level, where there are either no resources or prioritisation to involve central coordination, as well as at the global level. We conclude that BCP has great potential, but there are some barriers such as lack of self-enforcement and the fact that the principle is still under development and therefore relatively unknown to the general public. There is a need to demonstrate usability and build trust for the principle to really be considered as a viable supplement.