When pollution levels are very high, and thus little or nothing is being done to abate pollution, very simple, low cost changes can reduce pollution significantly. So, when pollution levels are high, the Marginal Cost of Abatement (MCA) is low.

    When pollution levels are low, added reductions often require very very expensive solutions. If a factory already produces fairly low levels of pollutants the complete redesign of production processes, requiring complete overhaul or even rebuilding of the factory might be required to lower pollution even further. The more pollution has been reduced, the more costly it is to further reduce. If we graph the MCA it will be upward sloping.

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