Int. J. Environment and Pollution, Vol. 21, No. 6, 2004 523 Copyright © 2004 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Use of abatement cost curves in developing environmental bubble policy for managing SPM in Jamshedpur region V.B. Gupta * , Vinay Kumar, K.K. Shah, Rekha Gupta, H.K. Gupta and Ranju Kumari School of Futures Studies and Planning, Devi Ahilya University, Khandwa Road, Indore (M.P.), 452017, India (e-mail: vbgupta.fsp@dauniv.ac.in) Abstract: This paper evaluates environmental bubble policy using abatement cost curves drawn for different abatement measures in Jamshedpur region. Surveys were conducted to estimate industrial emissions of suspended particulate matter (SPM) from different emitting sources in the region, and the characteristics of the existing and alternative abatement devices for each emitting source. The abatement cost functions were developed and used to rank the abatement devices. An environmental bubble with its limit equal to the existing SPM emissions from all selected companies was developed. The abatement costs for the bubble were estimated from abatement cost curves with alternative and best available technologies. The estimated abatement costs were found to be less than those of the existing measures. It was also found that M/s TISCO alone can account for SPM emissions reductions in the selected group with less cost. Keywords: abatement cost curves, environmental bubble policy, suspended particulate matter. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Gupta, V.B., Kumar, V., Shah, K.K., Gupta, R., Gupta, H.K. and Kumari, R. (2004) ‘Use of abatement cost curves in developing environmental bubble policy for managing SPM in Jamshedpur region’, Int. J. Environment and Pollution, Vol. 21, No. 6, pp. 523–532. Biographical notes Vijay Baboo Gupta has been working as faculty member at School of Futures Studies and Planning, Devi Ahilya University, since 1990. He has research interests in forecasting, optimization, systems modelling and simulation, and environmental management and planning. Vinay Kumar is affiliated to the Centre for Advocacy and Research in Environment, Mumbai. He has expertise in data collection and analysis, and environmental management. K.K. Shah is a project fellow with the School of Futures Studies and Planning, Devi Ahilya University. He has research interests in municipal solid waste management, and air quality management * Author for correspondence.