The Environmental Influence of Tax Regimes in Selected European Union Economies

Abstract

Eurostat and the European Environmental Agency have in 2019 reported there is still need to continue implementing zero-carbon practices in European Union (EU) Countries although there has been a noted decrease of 22% in emissions when compared to their 1990 levels. This paper employed a system-Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) framework to evaluate the environmental impacts of tax systems in selected 28 EU economies from 2010 to 2017. The results of the study proved that aggregate environmental tax is not effectively lowering greenhouse gas emissions as expected, although it improves environmental sustainability. Possibly the environment tax revenue collected in the European Union countries was not used to enhance energy efficiency; hence it could not lower greenhouse gas emissions. The other findings demonstrate that when environmental tax is disaggregated (energy tax and transport tax) these instruments have been more efficient in lessening emissions and also improves environmental sustainability (in the case of transport tax). The paper, therefore, highlights the importance of adopting green tax instruments which are more focused and harmonising directly with environmental goals for EU economies.