The Keys to Clean Energy Technology: Impact of Environmental Taxes on Biofuel Production and Consumption

Abstract

The growing level of modern environmental problems and the need to ensure energy security creates new challenges for the development of the energy sector. Nowadays, countries must balance their international competitiveness and progress in achievement the Sustainable Development Goals. This provides a necessity for the development of alternative energy technologies. Modern trends in the development of alternative energy indicate a gradual increase in the relevance of biofuel production. At the same time, the development of clean energy technologies needs significant investments, and their commercial implementation is a long process. Moreover, energy industry transformations require significant changes in the functioning of complementary spheres. That makes necessary the use of additional incentives for the development of the bioenergy sector. Thus, an assessment of the impact of environmental taxes on biofuel production and consumption becomes crucial. This research is aimed at the identification of contextual and causal relationships between environmental taxation (transport and energy taxes) and biofuel production and consumption. Contextual links were identified by the methods of bibliometric analysis (VOSviewer and Google Books Ngram Viewer results), while causal links were determined by the methods of panel regression modeling (panel-corrected standard errors model) with a time lag from 0 to 4 years. A sample of nine European countries (Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, U.K.) was formed for the assessment. The research period includes 2010–2020. The conducted bibliometric analysis proved the presence of a wide range of relationships between environmental taxation and the development of the bioenergy industry. Panel regression modeling proved the existence of a significant impact of environmental taxation on the volumes of biofuel production and consumption. The increase in revenues from transport and energy taxes determines the growth in indicators of biofuel production and consumption. Such effects are medium term for transport taxes and short term for energy taxes. These results made a huge contribution in the development of the system of state regulation methods of alternative energy stimulation and energy production and consumption transformations.

Nexus between Green Investment, Fiscal Policy, Environmental Tax, Energy Price, Natural Resources, and Clean Energy—A Step towards Sustainable Development by Fostering Clean Energy Inclusion

“…The study unveiled that the environmental tax and adoption of green technologies have a positive impact on energy efficiency, productivity, and intensity. A similar vine of findings can be derived from the study of Sharif et al [64], Shayanmehr et al [65], Yunzhao, L [66], Wolde-Rufael and Mulat-Weldemeskel [67], Bilan et al [68], Niu et al [69], Tu and Wang [70].…”

“…Natural resource rent is the surplus revenue derived from exploiting natural resources, such as oil, gas, minerals, and wood, after subtracting extraction costs. Natural resource rent can finance renewable energy initiatives and facilitate the shift towards sustainable energy sources [57,59,66].…”

The role of ICT investment, digital financial inclusion, and environmental tax in promoting sustainable energy development in the MENA region: Evidences with Dynamic Common Correlated Effects (DCE) and instrumental variable-adjusted DCE

“…level in MENA, suggesting the environmental restriction in terms of the imposition of additional tax act as a catalyst in clean energy inclusion I the energy mix. A similar line of findings can be found in the study of [ 6 , 16 , 102 , 103 ]. By promoting the adoption of clean energy and encouraging sustainable practices, environmental taxes can play a crucial role in driving the demand for clean energy and protecting the environment [ 104 ].…”

Applying Energy Taxes to Promote a Clean, Sustainable and Secure Energy System: Finding the Preferable Approaches

“…The proposed study currently has no analogues in the scientific literature. At the same time, previous studies proved that transport and energy taxes have a wide potential for regulatory influence on the production and consumption of biofuels [66], and the choice of the tax base when applying transport taxes determines their effectiveness in achieving the goals of environmental, economic, and energy security [67]. Parameters characterizing the structure of thermal energy production and consumption, renewable energy development indicators, parameters of environmental pollution in the energy production process, the level of energy import, and energy loss in the production and distribution process were chosen to assess energy security.…”