Damage costs are one means to approximate the monetary impact of air quality without using the full impact pathway approach.

• More information on the origins of damage costs is available

Based on the damage costs IGCB(A) have developed two tools aid the evaluation of decisions with a small impact on air quality through the use of damage costs.

Before using these tools it is important to recognise that they are only appropriate to use in certain cases.

• For others, the full impact-pathway approach may be more appropriate.

A decision tree will help you decide whether damage costs are suitable to use for your policy:

• Damage cost decision tree (PDF 20 KB)

Tool guidance

Where damage costs are applicable to the decision the following tools resources help you apply damage costs to your appraisal. These tools are:

• The damage cost calculator (DCC), which allows the valuation of impacts on air quality where the volume of the pollutants is known
• and the activity cost calculator (ACC), this tool looks to provide marginal costs associated with different specific activities, such as from transportation and industry.

Damage cost calculator

• Guidance (PDF 180 KB) – this is the updated final report to Defra by AEA Technology (published April 2006) setting out the approach and methodology used to derive damage cost values.