12 June 2012 - The objective of this environmental analysis is to report on the state of the environment and the key environmental issues,and to estimate these issues’ health and economic costs.
The analysis uses international epidemiological research evidence on the relationship between the population exposed to environmental pollution and the increased risks of health impacts to estimate the environmental disease burden in Kosovo and its associated economic impacts.
Costs are measured as, for example, impacts on health(morbidity and early mortality), and are then expressed as annual economic damage costs in euros and as a share of gross domestic product (GDP). By assigning monetary values to environmental degradation, the analysis here achieves four main results. It provides a useful mechanism to rank the relative social costs of various forms of degradation and provides a tool for prioritization of environmental problems. It offers policy makers an instrument to integrate the environment into economic decision making. It expresses the damage costs as a share of GDP, allowing for comparison with other economic indicators. And it gives to different stakeholders a tool for discussing the importance of environmental protection in economic terms—useful in deciding on how to allocate scarce resources and to increase awareness of the “costs of doing nothing” about pressing environmental problems.
The annual cost of environmental degradation in Kosovo is estimated at €123 million–€323 million in 2010, with a midpoint estimate of€221 million (table 1). This cost is equivalent to 2.9–7.7 percent of GDP, with the midpoint at 5.3 percent. Costs are indications rather than precise figures,as data gaps are many, some data have not been recently updated –due to country’s turbulent history- and not all impacts can be monetized.
With annual costs of environmental degradation of €221million, Kosovo faces serious social and economic impacts from poorly managedpolluting activities and could make huge gains from remedial actions to protectand restore the quality of the environment.
The cost of outdoor air pollution in urban areas, with the most significant health effects caused by particulates which are responsible for increases in cardiopulmonary and lung cancer mortality from long-term exposure and for chronic bronchitis and respiratory diseases, has the highest impact with estimated damage costs ranging from €37 million to €158million per year (0.89-3.76 percent of GDP). Air pollution is estimated to cause 835 premature deaths, 310 new cases of chronic bronchitis, 600 hospital admissions and 11,600 emergency visits each year.
