Environmental Taxes in the Member States of the European Union—Trends in Energy Taxes

Abstract

Environmental taxes, including energy taxes, are applied in all EU Member States. They are considered important instruments in the implementation of the EU energy and climate policies. The main purpose of the research presented in this article is to identify trends in the EU Member States in shaping environmental tax revenues, with particular emphasis on their most important group, i.e., energy taxes. The researchers sought answers to the research question regarding the existence of converging trends in this respect. The “letter values” method was used in the research procedure, which is an extension of the box-plots method. The analysis covered 27 EU Member States. The data used in the research came from the Eurostat database (2009–2020). As a result of the research, it was found that in the EU as a whole, there is a slight downward trend in the share of environmental tax revenues in GDP and the share of environmental tax revenues in total tax revenues, while the share of energy tax revenues in total environmental tax revenues shows a slight upward trend. The decomposition of the research and the conducted comparative analysis, including the determination of specific rankings, showed that both the level and trends in the shaping of the studied variables vary considerably in the individual EU Member States.

Effectiveness of Environmentally Related Taxes in the Republic of Serbia

“…The environmentally related taxes have been implemented in all EU member states. Famulska et al (2022) find that in 27 EU countries, the share of the environmentally related taxes in GDP is decreasing during the period from 2009 to 2020. According to Misztal (2022) it is necessary to pay greater attention to the environmentally related taxes in Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Poland, due to the fact that the environmentally related taxes in these countries have not reducing carbon emissions.…”

Assessment of the European Emissions Trading System’s Impact on Sustainable Development

“…The selection of the variables was straightforward (Table 2). Environmental taxation is a prominent instrument for implementing EU energy and climate policies [27]. Similarly, there is a growing interest in climate-related economic losses following the Paris Climate Conference, which enshrined loss and damage as a permanent feature of the global climate regime [28].…”

Financial Outsourcing in the Analysis of Environmental Fiscal Revenue Management

“…In this regard, the task arises to study possible sources of financing activities and the purposeful use of such a source of financing as environmental tax revenues in the budgets of different levels for activities to combat climate change. According to the authors, to develop and implement environmental measures aimed at reducing greenhouse gases, mixed capital is required: equity, equity, debt and borrowed capital (Famulska et al, 2022). Additionally, the establishment of an environmental financial system may benefit from the use of financial outsourcing services designed to efficiently attract, utilise, distribute, redistribute, and control financial resources to support eco-activities.…”