Podatki i opłaty ekologiczne jako instrumenty polityki środowiskowej

Abstract

Ecological taxes and fees as environmental policy instruments. Purpose: Contemporary world’s challenges related to the emerging environmental issues imply a necessity of developing an appropriate set of environmental management tools. The aims of the chapter are to present general principles of ecological taxation and to demonstrate the role of ecological taxes and fees as instruments that contribute effectively to the achievement of environmental protection policy objectives. Design/methodology/approach: The chapter presents a critical review of the academic and institutional research on ecological taxation and the results of a data analysis on environmental taxes in the European Union countries in 2019. It has been divided into four sections. The first and the second ones were devoted to the theoretical, functional and developmental aspects of ecological taxes and fees. Then, the indicators showing size of environmental tax burden in European Union countries were evaluated. The last section focused on a wide range of tax mechanisms and tools that would potentially improve environmental policy around the world. Findings: Ecological taxes and fees play a leading role when it comes to the use of the economic instruments for environmental policy. It is indicated that appropriately designed and implemented ecological tax system can provide comprehensive and effective support for achieving environmental objectives. It is essential to create new ecological tax mechanisms, as well as to modify existing ones to adapt them to the upcoming climate, environmental and energy challenges.