6. Conclusion

A study of the main environmental taxes shows that there is no coherent environmental tax policy based on a single model. This is primarily due to the fact that environmental taxation has been grafted onto the existing fiscal tax system. It seemed simpler to green either taxes that were essentially excise duties (i.e. taxes on a specific product, such as energy excise duties), or taxes targeting a specific activity (e.g. TEOM). In a way, the legislator has "recycled" the existing system by adapting it to new challenges.

A second reason may be advanced for the lack of unity in the French environmental tax system: environmental policy has developed progressively, under the impetus of the European Union and the successive directives it has adopted in specific fields (energy, waste, toxic substances, etc.). French legislators have designed environmental taxation in...