engleski

TRENDS IN ENVIRONMENTAL TAXES IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

In the last decade, a topic regarding the environment has been often discussed. It has been confirmed that greenhouse gas emissions emitted by human personal and work activities have caused climate change. Since the problem has been recognised, it is important to find the best solution to stop climate change and reduce all the activities that cause the (negative) change. In addition to harming the environment and human health, emissions from energy consumption also contribute to climate change. Taxes on energy use may minimize excessive emissions while earning money to support important government services by charging for these harmful effects. According to the European system of accounts, environmental taxes have a physical tax base (or a proxy thereof) defined as something causing a proven, specific negative effect on the environment. Environmental taxes are designed to modify the behaviour of economic agents, such as households and firms. According to statistical data from Eurostat, environmental taxation represented 2.2% of GDP and 5.4% of total government revenue from taxes and social contributions in 2020. Eurostat provides a current view of environmental taxation in the EU. Environmental taxes consist of energy taxes, pollution taxes, resource taxes and transportation taxes. This paper aims to measure the weight of macroeconomic factors on environmental tax among the EU Member States. The time frame of the analysis is nine years, and the authors will use the Eurostat data. IBM SPSS will be used to run the regression analysis using the fixed effect method to analyse environmental tax in the EU.

environmental protection ; environmental taxation ; the European Union ; gross domestic product

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