Green taxes - an instrument of the sustainable development in the European Union

Abstract

Many countries supporting Agenda 21, including the European Union and its Member States, recognize that much action is necessary to improve the environmental situation. During the last decade, the environmentalist movement has renewed its attack on the desirability of economic growth and has redoubled its call for drastic measures to ward off environmental catastrophe. Because of the threats implicit in the long-term effects of global warming, damage to the ozone layer, and the loss of biodiversity, modern countries must employ economic instruments for environmental protection and natural resource management. The increased use of green taxation has shown positive results in some countries through a shift from labor taxation towards pollution or resource-use taxation Improved environmental indicators clearly underline the necessity to adopt this instrument in the future. The aim of that paper is to show the importance of using green taxes as an economic instrument to integrate an environmental regulatory regime. Environmental taxes can be divided into four broad categories: energy, transport, pollution, and resource taxes. Energy taxes are by far the most significant, representing around three quarters of the environmental tax receipts and around one twentieth of the total taxes and social contributions. Using statistical data, this paper will analyze and compare levels of green taxes in the European Union (for each of the member states), their evolution, and their impact upon the natural and social environment. Keywords: green taxes, sustainability, external effects