ACCORDING to OECD Study, governments are
under-utilising taxation as a tool to curb the environmental consequences
of energy use, foregoing revenue and weakening their attack on the principal
source of greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change and
air pollution.
Taxing Energy Use 2015 – OECD and Selected Partner Economies compares taxes
on energy use in 41 countries worldwide, which together use 80% of global
energy.
The OECD says that taxes on energy use provide a transparent policy signal
and are one of the most effective tools governments have for reducing the
negative side effects of energy use. However, the new analysis shows that
energy taxes are poorly aligned with the negative side effects of energy
use, and are having limited impact on efforts to reduce energy use, improve
energy efficiency and drive a shift towards less harmful forms of energy.
“Current taxes on energy use are low and incoherent,” said OECD
Secretary-General Angel Gurría. “Tax policy is not being used effectively
to reduce the adverse health impacts and emissions of greenhouse gases resulting
from energy use. There is still considerable scope to use taxation to improve
the environment and containing climate change.”
The new research presents a systematic, comparative analysis of the structure
and level of energy taxes in the 34 OECD member countries and seven G20 partner
economies: Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa.
It translates statutory tax rates into effective tax rates per unit of energy
and per unit of carbon dioxide (CO2), for a wide range of energy types and
uses.
Taxes on energy use are shown to be low relative to the environmental costs
of energy use, both on average and within many countries.
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