Environmental Cost-Benefit Analysis: Social Discounting

Due to the increasing environmental degradation and high uncertainty of the degree of the natural capital substitutability, a necessity for a decision tool, that would assess a public project/policy, apart from the private, also from the social (so also environmental) point of view, has arisen. We present the environmental cost-benefit analysis (CBA) as an ideal aid to accomplish such an objective in theory, however, as a still imperfect tool to achieve it in practice. The CBA is full of controversies. In this book we address one of the most controversial steps - the choice of the social discount rate (SDR), in particular the social time discount rate (or “pure” rate of time preference) for the public environmental projects/policies in the Czech Republic. We therefore search for the most appropriate way of the SDR determination, value the social time discount rate and the SDR in general should take in the public environmental projects/policies in the Czech Republic and whether these outcomes are in compliance with the recommendations of the European Commission. This book should be very useful to everyone worldwide who deals with environmental CBAs or sustainable development issues.