Environmental tax on products and services based on their carbon footprint: A case study of the pulp and paper sector

Abstract

The main aim of this work is to define an environmental tax on products based on their carbon footprint. We examine the relevance of life cycle analysis (LCA) and environmentally extended input–output analysis (EIO) as methodological tools for identifying the emission intensities on which the tax is based. The price effects of the tax and the policy implications of considering non-CO2 greenhouse gases (GHG) are also analyzed. The results from the case study on pulp production show that the environmental tax rate based on LCA (1.8%) is higher than both EIO approaches (0.8 and 1.4% for product and industry, respectively), but they are of the same order of magnitude. Although LCA is more product specific and provides a more detailed analysis, we recommend EIO as a more relevant approach to applying an economy-wide environmental tax. If an environmental tax were applied to non-CO2 GHG instead to CO2 alone, the tax would greatly affects sectors such as agriculture, mining of coal, extraction of peat, and food. Therefore, it is worthwhile for policy-makers to pay attention to the implications of considering either a CO2 tax or a global GHG emissions tax in order to make their policy measures effective and meaningful.