History and social responses to environmental tax reform in the United Kingdom

This paper gives a short history of fuel taxation and the Climate Change Levy in the UK. The research described was based around the use of interviews and focus groups to inform the assessment of social responses to ETR policies and the development of improved designs for them. Interviews were conducted with selected policy makers and companies. Focus groups were conducted with quota samples of the general public. The research shows that the problem that ETR faces in terms of public acceptance is not so much outright hostility to environmental taxation as conceptual problems with the design. Similar conceptual problems were also found in the interviews with business people. These can be summarised as lack of trust about use of the revenues, difficulty in understanding the purpose of a tax shift and a desire for incentives for good behaviour as well as perceived ‘penalties’ for bad behaviour.     

Environmental tax reform: an assessment of social responses in Ireland

Environmental tax reform (ETR) is widely accepted to be a policy with desirable environmental, and other economic effects. The question arises then as to why its implementation has been so patchy. There is a broad literature on the economic impact of ETR, however, there have been very few research efforts devoted to understanding the roles and imperatives of the public, policy makers, businesses and other stakeholders who are addressed by ETR. This paper examines the impediments to ETR in Ireland. Focus groups were formed comprising of members of the general public and these provided a forum for detailed reactions to the ETR concept. Interviews were conducted with policy makers and key business people in an attempt to identify both the patterns of thinking behind ETR and the main obstacles to its introduction. Having presented the results, a theory of the main impediments to ETR is developed. The opinions of the members of the public, the business community and the policy makers highlight a number of issues that need to be addressed in the future design of ETR in Ireland. The principal potential impediments to ETR include: mistrust of the government, implausibility of the policy, means of hypothecation, information asymmetries, the political system, the structure of government, the macroeconomic environment, the impact on competitiveness, inequity between sectors, regressivity, elasticities and the level of the tax, terminology, and the marketing of ETR.     

Social and political responses to ecological tax reform in Europe: an introduction to the special issue

This paper introduces the special issue on the Policies for Ecological Tax Reform: Assessment of Social Responses (PETRAS) project about responses to ecological tax reform (ETR) in Europe. Although ETR is widely accepted to be a policy with desirable effects, its implementation has been limited by problems of political acceptability. The project aimed to address the question of how to make such a policy more acceptable. It is the first study to examine in depth the thinking of members of the general public about the ETR policies and is also the first international comparative study of the thinking of ordinary business people about ETR policies. The PETRAS project methodology was based around the use of interviews and focus groups to inform the assessment of social responses to ETR policies and the development of improved designs for them. A number of issues emerged relating to awareness, trust, understanding of the purpose, visibility, incentives, regressivity, levels of taxation, terminology, communication about ETR and the use of alternative instruments. Together with these similarities, a pattern of differences between the countries can also be seen. The final section of this paper introduces the national studies described in the following papers.     

Ecological tax reform in Germany: handling two hot potatoes at the same time

Combining environmental with employment objectives, ecological tax reform (ETR) envisages a double dividend. While research has mainly focused on the socio-economic and environmental impacts of ETR, there is less literature on the social responses. This paper gives an overview and history of German ETR as well as investigating the understanding of perceptions and attitudes towards ETR of those being “subject to tax”. The research is based on qualitative social research methods. As with the other PETRAS papers, interviews were conducted with policy-makers and business leaders and focus groups were formed with lay persons. The results show that responses of policy-makers and business leaders are modest. Although some criticisms about the specific design of the German ETR remain, complaints towards ETR are settled. Attitudes appear influenced by more fundamental convictions such as economic interest or altruistic views. In contrast, ETR appears to politicise common people. Attitudes are influenced by the overall comprehension of the ETR concept, the expected impacts, perceived information deficits, as well as a general distrust in politics. Our data show that the linking of environmental and employment objectives is not understood and not welcomed. In order to increase social acceptance, the paper discusses refocusing ETR on environmental objectives, modestly increasing the share of ETR revenue spent for environmental purposes, removing inconsistencies in the ETR design, and improving information policy.     

The rise and fall of French Ecological Tax Reform: social acceptability versus political feasibility in the energy tax implementation process

The French government has a 10-year history of negotiations with industry, resulting in voluntary agreements on energy consumption. When implemented, these voluntary agreements produced very few results in terms of global reduction of greenhouse emissions (Politiques et Management Public 11(4) (1993) 47), hence the idea of an energy tax became increasingly attractive for many French decision-makers. Ecological/Environmental Tax Reform (ETR) should have been one of the major political decisions and successes of the past leftwing coalition government. Instead it became one of its major failures as the Constitutional Court decided to terminate the energy tax project in December 2000. Through insights gleaned from focus groups and interviews with business-people and decision-makers, an attempt is made to understand the failure of the energy tax project. Firstly, decision-makers lacked crucial information about public and business opinions and secondly, there were conflicts between the relevant administrations. The fuel revolts of 2000 ended any hope of resolving the conflicts and implementing ETR, which was ultimately found unconstitutional. This paper examines the political controversies raised by the ETR project and the reasons for its eventual collapse, in the hope of contributing new understanding to the body of knowledge on the political difficulties of introducing environmental policy instruments.     

Ecological Tax Reform in Denmark: history and social acceptability

Despite the long-term and positive experience with Ecological Tax Reform (ETR), the PETRAS study indicates that awareness about the principles behind ETR is low among both businesses and the general public in Denmark. As well as the lack of awareness of ETR, attitudes towards environmental taxation appear negative. When explaining the political intentions behind ETR, attitudes seem to improve somewhat, but they still remain overall sceptical.     

The distributional implications of a carbon tax in Ireland

We study the effects of carbon tax and revenue recycling across the income distribution in the Republic of Ireland. In absolute terms, a carbon tax of €20/tCO₂ would cost the poorest households less than €3/week and the richest households more than €4/week. A carbon tax is regressive, therefore. However, if the tax revenue is used to increase social benefits and tax credits, households across the income distribution can be made better off without exhausting the total carbon tax revenue.     

The impacts of carbon tax and complementary policies on Chinese economy

Under the pressure of global warming, it is imperative for Chinese government to impose effective policy instruments to promote domestic energy saving and carbon emissions reduction. As one of the most important incentive-based policy instruments, carbon tax has sparked a lively controversy in China. This paper explores the impact of carbon tax on Chinese economy, as well as the cushion effects of the complementary policies, by constructing a dynamic recursive general equilibrium model. The model can describe the new equilibrium for each sequential independent period (e.g. one year) after carbon tax and the complementary policies are imposed, and thus describe the long-term impacts of the policies. The simulation results show that carbon tax is an effective policy tool because it can reduce carbon emissions with a little negative impact on economic growth; reducing indirect tax in the meantime of imposing carbon tax will help to reduce the negative impact of the tax on production and competitiveness; in addition, giving households subsidy in the meantime will help to stimulate household consumptions. Therefore, complementary policies used together with carbon tax will help to cushion the negative impacts of carbon tax on the economy. The dynamic CGE analysis shows the impact of carbon tax policy on the GDP is relatively small, but the reduction of carbon emission is relatively large.     

Influence of the pro-ecological tax on the market prices of fuels and electricity

The proposed pro-ecological tax should be proportional to the cumulative consumption of non-renewable natural exergy burdening the considered product. It should replace the existing value-added tax (VAT). The income of the state after introducing the new tax, should remain without any change. That principle determines the coefficient of proportionality between the cumulative consumption of non-renewable exergy and the value of the tax. The total value of the tax should be paid to the state after extracting the minerals and fuels from nature and importing the fuels and semi-finished products, then transferred to the subsequent products in a form of their elevated price. Hence, the tax is eventually paid by the consumers in the form of an elevated price of goods and services. The total income of the society should remain without any changes. The largest price increase will appear in the case of fuels and electricity. The prices of electricity produced from renewable resources are calculated too, taking into account the accompanying unavoidable consumption of non-renewable exergy for the construction of the power plant. The new VAT should enhance the economy of the most energy-consuming products, stimulate the mitigation of the total consumption level of the society and increase the application of the renewable energy resources.     

Reevaluating the first and the second dividends of environmental tax reforms

There is increasing global interest in market-based climate change policies following the last elections in the United States. In this context an Exxon Mobil chief executive came out in favour of a carbon tax. This paper is concerned with the welfare analysis of Environmental Tax Reforms (ETR), and takes up the claims for the need of an unambiguous and operative definition of the double dividend both for empirical purposes and political advisement. In this paper, we contest the usual definition of the second dividend and its assimilation to an “efficiency dividend”. We propose alternative definitions by suggesting a different splitting of the total welfare variation between the first and the second dividend in order to isolate the efficiency effects of the ETR. The new definitions become clearly understandable and easy for economic and policy interpretation. Concepts like “weak” and “strong” double dividend turn out to be unnecessary. Finally, we analyze ETR for the US economy to illustrate the advantages of the proposed definitions for policy implementation.     

Impact of reform and privatization on consumers: A case study of power sector reform in Orissa,India

Orissa is the first state in India to have undergone reform in the power sector, with the government withdrawing its control. The model of this reform is known as the WB–Orissa model. The goal of this paper is to examine the impact of this reform on consumers of electricity, which has been measured using multiple regression models. The variables represent the parameters that consumers are most interested in, and the regression coefficients represent the weights of the corresponding variables. The data were collected using a survey methodology. The impact of reform was found to be mixed. Some groups of consumers saw benefits, while others felt a negative impact. A focus group study was conducted to identify the variables of interest to consumers of electricity. The model was used to estimate consumer benefit and was validated using primary data and structural equation modeling. The study revealed beneficial aspects of reform and areas with no benefits.     

Economic and environmental implications of demand-side management options

End-use electricity efficiency improvements offer an inexpensive way to reduce power shortages. The present study estimates the potential of demand-side management efficiency improvement targeted at (1) short-term efficiency improvement (agricultural pump rectification) that can provide immediate relief, and (2) long-term efficiency improvement (appliance standards such as AC and refrigerator, new agricultural pump purchase and pump replacement) for Gujarat state in India. The methodology includes the calculation of cost of conserved energy for each technology, which works out to be (−1.18) US$ cents/kW h for new agriculture pump sets, 1.03 US$ cents/kW h for refrigerators and 5.21 US$ cents/kW h for air conditioners. The price of power varies around 1.13 US$ cents to 12.1 cents/kW h in Gujarat. The annual energy savings from the selected energy-efficient technologies are approximately 8767 GW h over a period of 10 yr, while the estimated peak power savings are about 1814 MW, large enough to eliminate one-fourth of the state's electricity shortages. Also, the estimated CO₂ emissions savings are about 7715 Giga grams (Gg) from implementation of the selected energy efficiency measures over a period of 10 yr.     

中外能源环境税比较与启示

能源活动引发的环境问题已日益威胁到人类的生存。基于这一现实,发达国家已经开始采取各种政策手段去调节能源活动主体的生产和消费行为。在众多政策手段中,能源环境税收以其对市场的扭曲程度小、对提高能源使用效率的刺激作用强、对污染行为的调控力度大等优势成为环境管理的热点。本文首先阐述了能源环境税收的基本结构,在此基础上通过对比发达国家和中国的能源环境税收体系和政策,探讨了其成功经验对我国的启示。     

Economic and environmental implications of Turkish accession to the European Union: A CGE analysis

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the economic and environmental implications of Turkey’s possible accession to the European Union (EU). The paper focuses on the impacts of three main components of Turkey’s possible EU membership: (i) the free movement of labor between the EU and Turkey, (ii) the free movement of capital, and (iii) the burden-sharing of Turkey in terms of the EU’s environmental objectives in the horizon of 2020, that is, the reduction of carbon emissions. Among these, a particular focus is placed on the influence of the CO₂ emission reduction targets in both regions and their consequences on the carbon price in 2020. We estimate the resource allocation effects of EU climate change policies on both regions by taking into account the likely labor movement from Turkey to the EU and capital movement in the reverse direction. The results show that different emission targets for the two regions bring about a change in comparative advantages and thus a change in interregional competitiveness.     

国内成品油价格改革现状、问题和思路

本文首先对我国成品油价格改革的历史进行回顾,在此基础上对目前国内成品油价格形成机制存在的主要问题进行分析,归纳起来发现在国内外价格变动存在时间滞后性、在价格调整方法上利于投机、与国内市场供求关系脱节、调价频率缺乏透明度、价格改革缺乏协调性和同质不同价等问题。在分析问题的基础上,对近期和远期国内成品油价格改革提出思路,明确了指导方针和基本原则,并提出具体改革建议。     

Estimates of energy subsidies in China and impact of energy subsidy reform

For a transitional economy such as China, some energy subsidies are reasonable, and sometimes even necessary for achieving social goals. However, with rising energy prices and environmental concerns, we see conflicts emerging between energy subsidies, energy demand/supply fundamentals and climate change considerations. Energy subsidies have important implications for sustainable development through their effects on energy use, efficiency and the choice of fuel source. This paper applies the price-gap approach to estimate China's energy subsidies. Results indicate that China's energy subsidies amounted to CNY 356.73 billion in 2007, equivalent to 1.43% of GDP. Subsidies for oil products consumption are the largest, followed by subsidies for the electricity and coal sectors. Furthermore, a CGE model is used to analyze the economic impacts of energy subsidy reforms. Our findings show that removing energy subsidies will result in a significant fall in energy demand and emissions, but will have negative impacts on macroeconomic variables. We conclude that offsetting policies could be adopted such that certain shares of these subsidies are reallocated to support other sustainable development measures, which could lead to reducing energy intensity and favoring the environment.     

Designing an electricity tax system in presence of international regulations and multiple public goals: An empirical assessment

The European competition rules restrict governments’ opportunity to differentiate terms of energy accessibility among firms and industries. This easily runs counter with regional and industrial goals of national energy policies. Norway levies a tax on use of electricity, but exempts main industrial usages. This analysis assesses alternative, internationally legal, designs of the system in terms of their effects on efficiency and distribution, including industrial objectives. Among the reforms we explore, removing the exemptions would be the most effective way of raising revenue, but it would be politically costly by deteriorating the competitiveness of today's favoured industries. An entire abolishment of the electricity tax, and replacing revenue by increased VAT, would generate a more equal distribution of standard of living and, at the same time, avoid the trade-off between efficiency and competitiveness.     

Scenario-based analyses of energy system development and its environmental implications in Thailand

Thailand is one of the fastest growing energy-intensive economies in Southeast Asia. To formulate sound energy policies in the country, it is important to understand the impact of energy use on the environment over the long-period. This study examines energy system development and its associated greenhouse gas and local air pollutant emissions under four scenarios in Thailand through the year 2050. The four scenarios involve different growth paths for economy, population, energy efficiency and penetration of renewable energy technologies. The paper assesses the changes in primary energy supply mix, sector-wise final energy demand, energy import dependency and CO₂, SO₂ and NO_x emissions under four scenarios using end-use based Asia-Pacific Integrated Assessment Model (AIM/Enduse) of Thailand.     

凝汽式汽轮机热电联产技术改造及节能效果分析

南海长海电厂50MW的凝汽式汽轮机热力性能低,为避免机组关停,提高机组热效率,通过热电联产技术将其改造为非调整抽汽式供热机组,发电的同时对纺织工业园进行集中供热。该改造方案通过增加非调整抽汽口,从汽轮机第8级向外抽汽,同时对抽汽管路系统、控制水系统、旋启式止回阀、压力控制器等相应部件进行了调整。改造后机组经济效益、社会效益明显,达到了热电联产的要求,具有显著的节能效果。