Environmental taxation

Eurostat defines environmental taxation as taxes "whose base is a physical unit (or a proxy for a physical unit) of something that has a specific and proven negative impact on the environment". The OECD proposes a similar definition, also based on the tax base criterion. In short, environmental taxation is made up of a set of taxes, at least one of whose components is linked to the environment.

Environmental taxation is based on the "polluter pays" principle. The general idea behind this principle is to make the polluter pay, in this case through taxation. The logical consequence of this reasoning is that the proceeds of the tax in question must be used to combat pollution, either preventively or remedially. Environmental taxation thus presupposes three things: a tax base based on an element of the environment, a tax that designates the polluter as the taxpayer, and tax revenues earmarked for environmental protection.

In practice, however, there is a significant gap between theory and practice. This discrepancy stems from the fact that environmental taxation is made up of both environmental taxes and general taxes. The former are eco-taxes (or Pigouvian taxes), while the latter are budget taxes, so called because their purpose is to feed the general budget of public authorities. Few taxes have been created specifically for environmental purposes, as legislators have often confined themselves to "greening", i.e. integrating an environmental element into existing taxes. It is difficult for the legislator to abolish them outright and replace them with eco-taxes, as this would undermine the financial equilibrium of the public authorities receiving the tax revenue. The proceeds of eco-taxes must be allocated to environmental clean-up or preservation, and are not intended to be paid into the general budgets of public authorities. Nor can the legislator create eco-taxes ad infinitum by adding them to existing taxes, as this would increase the tax burden and make such choices unpopular.

This explains the lack of conceptual unity in environmental taxation, and the difficulty of giving it a unified definition. It can vary from one author to another. Some scholars distinguish between environmental taxation and ecological taxation per se. The first category, environmental taxation, aims to tax activities or products that harm the environment (transport, energy, water consumption, etc.). The second category, ecological taxation, includes taxes that meet the criteria of the polluter-pays principle and, in particular, the theory of negative externalities. In other words, environmental taxation is identified by its base, which is made up of an element linked to pollution, while ecological taxation is also identified by its purpose, which is to implement...