EFICIENCY OF ENVIRONMENTAL TAXES IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Abstract

This research will attempt to give a theoretical contribution on the basis of the fundamental postulates of the empirical findings of other authors, who examined and tested the efficiency of environmental taxes and their abundance, and by verifying the new findings in this field. Taking into consideration the findings of other authors and the new findings obtained in this research, we have defined the following research question, to which we will try to provide an answer: Does the introduction of environmental taxes in the EU countries have any effect on the reduction in pollution, reduction in CO2 emissions, reduction in the production and consumption of energy? By answering this question, we will assess whether the environmental taxes in the EU are efficient. In order to examine and test this correlation, we used the available secondary data on the environmental taxes and pollution in the EU. The data were taken from the official EU statistics, Eurostat, for the period from 2007 to 2015, and the data are therefore accessible in this database. After collecting and analysing the data, we used the correlation and regression method to test the correlation between the total environmental taxes collected at the EU level, which represent the independent variable, and the household energy consumption, CO2 emissions and primary energy production, which represent the dependent variables. The paper examined whether higher income from environmental taxes reduces the energy consumption and the emissions of harmful CO2 in the environment. By using the correlation and regression method, we came to the conclusion that the environmental taxes in the EU in the period from 2007 to 2015 had an effect on reducing the production and consumption of energy and on CO2 emissions.