Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
sectors. For example, they address aspects such as congestion, public health
problems derived from traf
c accidents, problems associated with noise levels, etc.
Moreover, the report indicates that most countries do not have an adequate
framework for sharing out road use costs among users (
“
road pricing
”
), which
means that governments have the incentive of using fuel consumption (
“
road fuel
consumption
) as a proxy for setting tax rates and thereby funding the costs of
transport infrastructures (e.g. road construction and maintenance). In other words,
most of the tax on transport is levied with the goal of funding transport infra-
structures (although this is not the only goal pursued: as mentioned above, the tax
collection goal plays an important role in energy taxation), i.e. for a purpose entirely
different from energy and environmental policy.
One important indication of the lack of sustainability of the transport sector in
the OECD countries is the rising trend in CO
2
emissions, which is often one of the
factors that most hinder the emission reduction commitments undertaken by
countries. Obviously, the tax on fuel used in transport is a major environmental
signal. However, the fact that its origin, design and motivations fall entirely outside
this scope mean that it is not often used to address the challenges faced in this
sector.
Secondly, apart from the taxes in other sectors, such as electricity, consumers
commit to costs, make contributions, and are even asked to provide funds with a
view to funding compliance with environmental or energy targets set by govern-
ments. This phenomenon is can be clearly seen in the case of the European Union,
where the electricity sector is subject to the EU ETS. Under this scheme, stake-
holders have targets for bringing down emissions and incur a cost for every tonne of
CO
2
that they emit in the electricity production process, which is then re
”
ected in
the market price for CO
2
emission allowances. This cost, which is not taken into
account when calculating the energy or environmental taxation borne by electricity
consumers, is equivalent to a tax on CO
2
, which is not applied to the transport
sector in the case of the EU. In addition to the cost of CO
2
, as evidenced in the case
of Spain, electricity consumers often fund most of the development of renewable
energies with resources collected from their electricity tariffs.
Box 1. Quantitative analysis for Spain to illustrate the differences
between the electricity and transport sectors as regards
scal pressure
and charges derived from energy and environmental policy
In Spain, the access tariffs payable by electricity consumers are used to fund
many items not strictly linked to the power supply and which contribute to
nancing environmental or social policies (for example, premiums for
renewable energies or support for domestic coal). To simplify our analysis,
non-mainland compensation costs (paid by electricity consumers to com-
pensate for the extraordinary cost that would apply to consumers for supplying
electricity to island territories) and interruptibility costs are not included.
As well as the above, the price of electricity includes the cost of regulatory
decisions that have given the electricity sector a special
role in the
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