Environmental taxation: Role in promotion of the pro-environmental behaviour

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to investigate the potential of environmental taxation in the regulation of ecological responsibility and ensuring the pro-environmental behaviour of economic entities. To study the theoretical basis of environmental taxation and environmentally responsible behaviour, a bibliometric analysis of key words in scientific articles published on this topic was conducted. The results of the bibliometric analysis show that aspects of environmentally responsible behaviour are presented in the list of keywords that mediate the study of environmental taxation. Thus, pro-environmental behaviour is defined by the necessity of health risks avoiding, clean energy technology providing, waste generating reducing etc. The impact of environmental taxes on various aspects of environmentally responsible behaviour was modelled on the sample of six European countries (Belgium, France, Austria; Finland and Denmark) for 1994-2019. The results of the calculations show that environmental taxes have limited effectiveness in regulating various aspects of environmental liability. So, the average growth of environmental taxes revenue by 1 USD million provides a decrease in the Eco-Innovation Index by 0.001 point; the slow rise in CO2 emissions (less than 0.000 %) and the growth in tobacco use (about 0.000 %). On the other hand, environmental taxes do not influence the country’s environmental performance, as well as on the total alcohol consumption and renewable electricity consumption and output. Thus, an approach to the establishment of tax benefits for enterprises was proposed, considering the results of changes in the environmentally harmful effects they produce.