Transport taxes and decarbonization in Spaindistributional impacts and compensation

  1. Alberto Gago 1
  2. Xavier Labandeira 1
  3. José M. Labeaga 2
  4. Xiral López-Otero 2
  1. 1 Universidade de Vigo
    info

    Universidade de Vigo

    Vigo, España

    ROR https://ror.org/05rdf8595

  2. 2 Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
    info

    Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia

    Madrid, España

    ROR https://ror.org/02msb5n36

Revista:
Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics

ISSN: 0210-1173

Ano de publicación: 2021

Número: 238

Páxinas: 101-136

Tipo: Artigo

Outras publicacións en: Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics

Resumo

The importance of energy-environmental taxation in the transition to decarbonized economies does not correspond to its actual role due to several constraints on its application. This paper emphasizes one of the main barriers, the negative impacts on distribution and equity, and suggests alternatives to mitigate these effects. In particular, it lists a series of fscal proposals for road transport and aviation, sources of significant emissions, defined and empirically evaluated for the specific case of Spain, with compensatory packages to reduce their regressive nature and thus support their viability in practice.

Información de financiamento

We acknowledge fnancial support of the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation, the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and the ERDF through the project RTI2018-093692-B-I00. The authors retain sole responsibility for any errors or omissions.

Referencias bibliográficas

  • Adolf, C. and Röhrig, K. (2016), “Green taxes as a means of fnancing the EU budget: policy options”, Study commissioned by MEP Helga Trüpel, available in: https://green-budget.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016-10-20_FINAL_Policy-Options-for-Ecological-European-own-resources.pdf.
  • Airbus (2018), Global networks, global citizens. 2018-2037, Blagnac Cedex: Airbus.
  • Alvaredo, F., Chancel, L., Piketty, T., Saez, E. and Zucman, G. (2018), World inequality report 2018, Paris: World Inequality Lab.
  • Andersson, J. J. (2019), “The distributional effects of a carbon tax: The role of income inequality”, FSR Climate Annual Conference, Florence.
  • Australian Government (2011), Securing a clean energy future, Canberra: Australian Government.
  • Azar, C. and Johansson, D. J. (2012), “Valuing the non-CO2 climate impacts of aviation”, Climate Change, 111: 559-579.
  • Berry, A. (2018), “Compensating households from carbon tax regressivity and fuel poverty: A microsi- mulation study”, hal-01691088.
  • Blundell, R. and Preston, I. (1998), “Consumption inequality and income uncertainty”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 113: 603-640.
  • Brons, M., Pels, E., Nijkamp, P. and Rietveld, R. (2001), “Price elasticities of demand for passenger air travel: a meta-analysis”, Journal of Air Transport Management, 8: 165-175.
  • Carattini, S., Carvalho, M. and Fankhauser, S. (2018), “Overcoming public resistance to carbon taxes”, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 9.
  • Carl, J. and Fedor, D. (2016), “Tracking global carbon revenues: a survey of carbon taxes versus cap- and-trade in the real world”, Energy Policy, 96: 50-77.
  • CETE (2018), Análisis y propuestas para la descarbonización, Comisión de Expertos sobre Transición Energética. Madrid, available in: http://www6.mityc.es/aplicaciones/transicionenergetica/informe_ cexpertos_20180402_veditado.pdf.
  • CERSTE (2014), Informe, Comisión de Expertos sobre Reforma del Sistema Tributario Español, Madrid: Ministerio de Hacienda.
  • CERMFA (2017), Informe, Comisión de Expertos para Revisión del Modelo de Financiación Autonó- mica. Madrid, available in: http://www.hacienda.gob.es/CDI/sist%20fnanciacion%20y%20deuda/informaci%C3%B3nccaa/informe_fnal_comisi%C3%B3n_reforma_sfa.pdf.
  • CERSFL (2017), Análisis de propuestas de reforma del sistema de fnanciación local, Comisión de Expertos para la Reforma del Sistema de Financiación Local, available in: http://www.hacienda.gob.es/CDI/sist%20fnanciacion%20y%20deuda/informacioneells/2017/informe_fnal_comisi%C3%B3n_ reforma_sf.pdf.
  • CLC (2019a), “Economists’ statement on carbon dividends”, Climate Leadership Council, available in: https://clcouncil.org/economists-statement/.
  • CLC (2019b), “The four pillars of our carbon dividends plan”, available in: https://clcouncil.org/our-plan/. CORES (2019), Estadísticas, Corporación de Reservas Estratégicas de Productos Petrolíferos, available in: https://www.cores.es/es/estadisticas.
  • CPLC (2016), “What are the options for using carbon pricing revenues?”, Carbon Pricing Leadership Coa- lition, available in: http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/668851474296920877/CPLC-Use-of-Revenues- Executive-Brief-09-2016.pdf.
  • CPLC (2017), Report of the high-level commission on carbon prices, Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition. Washington, DC: World Bank.
  • Criqui, P., Jaccard, M. and Sterner, T. (2019), “Carbon taxation: A tale of three countries”, Sustainabi- lity, 11: 6280.
  • Cutler, D. and Katz, L. (1992), “Rising inequality? Changes in the distribution of income and consump- tion in the 1980s”, American Economic Review, 82: 546-561.
  • Davis, L. W. and Kilian, A. L. (2011), “Estimating the effect of a gasoline tax on carbon emissions”, Journal of Applied Econometrics, 26: 1187-1214.
  • De Bruin, K., Monaghan, E. and Yakut, A. M. (2019), “The economic and distributional impacts of an increased carbon tax with different revenue recycling schemes”, Research Series 95, Economic and Social Research Institute.
  • De Mooij, R., Parry, I. W. and Keen, M. (2012), Fiscal policy to mitigate climate change. A guide for policymakers, Washington DC: International Monetary Fund.
  • Dinan, T. (2015), “Offsetting a Carbon Tax’s Burden on Low-Income Households”, in I. Parry, A. Morris and R. Williams III (eds.), Implementing a US carbon tax, Abingdon: Routledge, 120-140.
  • EAERE (2019), “Economists’ statement on carbon pricing”, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, available in: https://www.eaere.org/statement/.
  • Ecofys (2014), Subsidies and costs of EU energy, Final Report, available in: https://ec.europa.eu/energy/ en/content/fnal-report-ecofys.
  • Ekins, P. and Speck, S. (eds.) (2011), Environmental tax reform: A policy for green growth, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Erbach, G. (2018), “CO2 emissions from aviation”, European Parliamentary Research Service, available in: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2017/603925/EPRS_BRI(2017)603925_ EN.pdf.
  • European Commission (2015), Annual growth survey 2016, COM (2015) 690 fnal.
  • European Commission (2017), The EU environmental implementation review, Country report - Spain, SWD (2017) 42 fnal.
  • European Commission (2019a), Taxation trends in the European Union, 2019 ed., Luxembourg: Publications Offce of the European Union.
  • European Commission (2019b), Taxes in the feld of aviation and their impact, Final Report, Luxembourg: Publications Offce of the European Union.
  • European Council (2017), “Reform of the EU emissions trading system - Council endorses deal with European Parliament”, available in: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/es/press/press-releases/2017/11/ 22/reform-of-the-eu-emissions-trading-system-council-endorses-deal-with-european-parliament/.
  • European Union (2015), Submission by Latvia and the European Union on behalf of the European Union and its member states, Riga: Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
  • Eurostat (2019a), Air passenger transport by reporting country, available in: http://appsso.eurostat.ec. europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=avia_paoc&lang=en.
  • Eurostat (2019b), Greenhouse gas emissions statistics - emission inventories, Statistics explained, avaiable in: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Greenhouse_gas_emission_statistics.
  • Falk, M. and Hagsten, E. (2019), “Short-run impact of the fight departure tax on air travel”, Internatio- nal Journal of Tourism Research, 21: 37-44.
  • Flues, F. and Thomas, A. (2015), “The distributional effects of energy taxes”, OECD Taxation Working Papers 23, OECD.
  • FOEN (2019), Redistribution of the CO2 levy, Swiss Federal Offce for the Environment, available in: https://www.bafu.admin.ch/bafu/en/home/topics/climate/info-specialists/climate-policy/co2-levy/redistribution-of-the-co2-levy.html.
  • Foster, J., Greer, J. and Thorbecke, E. (1984), “A class of decomposable poverty measures”, Econometrica, 52: 761-766.
  • Fullerton, D. (2001), “A framework to compare environmental policies”, Southern Economic Journal, 68: 224-248.
  • Fullerton, D., Leicester, A. and Smith, S. (2010), “Environmental taxes” in Institute for Fiscal Studies (ed.), Dimensions of tax design, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Gago, A. and Labandeira, X. (1999), La reforma fiscal verde, Madrid: Ediciones Mundi-Prensa.
  • Gago, A. and Labandeira, X. (2014), “El Informe Mirrlees y la imposición ambiental en España”, in J.Viñuela (ed.), Opciones para una reforma del sistema tributario español, Madrid: Fundación Ramón Areces, 321-370.
  • Gago, A., Labandeira, X. and López-Otero, X. (2014a), “A panorama on energy taxes and green tax reforms”, Hacienda Pública Española, 208: 145-190.
  • Gago, A., Labandeira, X. and López-Otero, X. (2014b), Impuestos energético-ambientales en España, Informe 2013, Economics for Energy, available in: https://eforenergy.org/publicaciones.php.
  • Gago, A., Labandeira, X. and López-Otero, X. (2016), “Las nuevas reformas fiscales verdes”, WP05/2016, Economics for Energy, available in: https://eforenergy.org/publicaciones.php.
  • Gago, A., Labandeira, X., Labeaga, J. M. and López-Otero, X. (2019), “Impuestos energético-ambientales en España: situación y propuestas efcientes y equitativas”, Documento de Trabajo de Sostenibilidad 2/2019, Fundación Alternativas.
  • Gago, A., Labandeira, X., Labeaga, J. M. and López-Otero, X. (2020), “Pautas para una reforma de la fiscalidad del transporte en España”, Papeles de Economía Española, 163: 98-116.
  • Goulder, L. H. (1995), “Environmental taxation and the double dividend: a reader’s guide”, International Tax and Public Finance, 2: 157-183.
  • Government of Canada (2016), Pan-Canadian framework on clean growth and climate change, available in: http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2017/eccc/En4-294-2016-eng.pdf.
  • Government of France (2017), Fiscalité carbone, available in: https://www.ecologique-solidaire.gouv. fr/fiscalite-carbone.
  • Government of Netherlands (2019), “Aviation taxes in Europe”, Conference paper for the Netherlands Carbon Pricing and Aviation Tax 20/21, June 2019.
  • Hammar, H. and Jagers, S. C. (2006), “Can trust in politicians explain individuals’ support for climate policy? The case of CO2 tax”, Climate Policy, 5: 613-625.
  • Heindl, P. (2015), “Measuring fuel poverty: general considerations and application to German household data”, FinanzArchiv, 71: 178-215.
  • Heine, D. and Black, S. (2019), “Benefts beyond climate: environmental tax reform”, in M. A. Pigato (ed.), Fiscal policies for development and climate action, Washington, DC: World Bank, 1-63.
  • Holtsmark, B. and Skonhoft, A. (2014), “The Norwegian support and subsidy policy of electric cars. Should it be adopted by other countries?”, Environmental Science and Policy, 42: 160-168.
  • IATA (2008), “Air travel demand”, IATA Economics Briefng 9, IATA.
  • IATA (2018), “IATA forecast 8.2 billion air travelers in 2037”, Press release 62, available in: https:// www.iata.org/pressroom/pr/Pages/2018-10-24-02.aspx.
  • ICAO (2019a), “Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) - Frequently asked questions (FAQs)”, available in: https://www.icao.int/environmental-protection/CORSIA/Documents/CORSIA_FAQs_February%202019_clean_rev.pdf.
  • ICAO (2019b),“Presentation of 2018 air transport statistical results”, available in: https://www.icao.int/annual-report-2018/Documents/Annual.Report.2018_Air%20Transport%20Statistics.pdf.
  • IEA (2015), Energy policies of IEA countries. Spain. 2015 Review, Paris: OECD/IEA.
  • IEA (2019), Energy prices and taxes. Quarterly statistics, Paris: OECD/IEA.
  • IMF (2018), “Spain. Staff report for the 2018 article IV consultation”, IMF Country Report 18/330.
  • IMF (2019), Fiscal monitor: how to mitigate climate change, available in: https://www.imf.org/en/Publi cations/FM/Issues/2019/09/12/fscal-monitor-october-2019.
  • INE (2019a), “Encuesta de presupuestos familiares”, available in: https://www.ine.es. INE (2019b), “Encuesta de turismo de residentes”, available in: https://www.ine.es.
  • IPCC (2006), 2006 IPCC guidelines for national green house gas inventories, Hayama: IGES.
  • Klenert, D., Mattauch, L., Combet, E., Edenhofer, O., Hepburn, C., Rafaty, R. and Stern, N. (2018), “Making carbon pricing work for citizens”, Nature Climate Change, 8: 669-677.
  • Korzhenevych, A., Dehnen, N., Bröcker, J., Holtkamp, M., Meier, H., GibsonI, G., Varma, A. and Cox, V. (2014), Update of the handbook on external costs of transport, London: Ricardo-AEA.
  • Labandeira, X., Labeaga, J. M. and López-Otero, X. (2016), “Un metaanálisis sobre la elasticidad precio de la demanda de energía en España y la Unión Europea”, Papeles de Energía, 2: 65-93.
  • Labandeira, X., Labeaga, J. M. and López-Otero, X. (2017), “A meta-analysis on the price elasticity of energy demand”, Energy Policy, 102: 549-568.
  • Labandeira, X., López-Otero, X. and Picos, F. (2009), “La fscalidad energético-ambiental como espacio fiscal para las comunidades autónomas”, en S. Lago, S. and J. Martínez (eds.), La asignación de impuestos a las comunidades autónomas: desafíos y oportunidades, Madrid: IEF, 237-268.
  • Labandeira, X., López-Otero, X. and Rodríguez, M. (2007), “La regulación ambiental del sector energético y sus alternativas correctoras”, Revista de Economía Industrial, 365: 127-136.
  • Labeaga, J. M., Labandeira, X. and López-Otero, X. (2021), “Energy taxation, subsidy removal and poverty in Mexico”, Environment and Development Economics, 26: 239-260.
  • Larsson, J., Elofsson, A., Sterner, T. and Akerman, J. (2019), “International and national climate poli- cies for aviation: A review”, Climate Policy, 19: 787-799.
  • Lee, D. S, Fahey, D. W., Forster, P. M., Newton, P. J., Wit, R. C. N., Lim, L. L., Owen, B. and Sausen, R. (2009), “Aviation and global climate change in the 21st century”, Atmospheric Environment, 43: 3520-3537.
  • Li, S., Linn, J. and Muehlegger, E. (2014), “Gasoline taxes and consumer behavior”, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 6: 302-342.
  • Maibach, M., Schreyer, C., Sutter, D., van Essen, H., Boon, B., Smokers, R., Schroten, A., Doll, C., Pawlowska, B. and Bak, M.(2008), Handbook on estimation of external costs in the transport sector, Version 1.1, Netherlands: CE Delft.
  • Marron, D. B. and Morris, A. C. (2016), “How to use carbon tax revenues”, Tax Policy Center, available in: https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/how-use-carbon-tax-revenues.
  • Marten, M. and van Dender, K. (2019), “The use of revenues from carbon pricing”, OECD Taxation Working Paper 43, OECD.
  • Ministry of Transportation (2019), Tráfco en los aeropuertos españoles. available in: https://www.mitma.gob.es/recursos_mfom/listado/recursos/trafco_en_los_aeropuertos_espanoles-2018.pdf.
  • Ministry for Ecological Transition (2019a), Avance de emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero corres- pondientes al año 2018, Madrid: Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica.
  • Ministry for Ecological Transition (2019b), Emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero, Edición 2019, Tablas de datos del reporte, available in: https://www.miteco.gob.es/es/calidad-y-evaluacion-ambiental/temas/sistema-espanol-de-inventario-sei-/Inventario-GEI.aspx.
  • Ministry for Ecological Transition (2019c), Factores de emisión. Registro de huella de carbono, compensación y proyectos de absorción de dióxido de carbono, available in: https://www.miteco.gob.es/es/cambio-climatico/temas/mitigacion-politicas-y-medidas/factores_emision_tcm30-479095.pdf.
  • Ministry for Ecological Transition (2019d), Sistema español de inventario de emisiones. Metodologías de estimación de emisiones, available in: https://www.miteco.gob.es/es/calidad-y-evaluacion-ambiental/ temas/sistema-espanol-de-inventario-sei-/0805_transporte_aereo_tcm30-446885.pdf.
  • Montes, A. (2019), “Imposición al carbono, derecho comparado y propuestas para España”, Documento de trabajo 1/2019, Instituto de Estudios Fiscales.
  • Morris, A. C. and Mathur, A. (2014), “A carbon tax in broader U. S. fscal reform: Design and distributional issues”, Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.
  • OECD (2015), OECD environmental performance reviews: Spain 2015, Paris: OECD Publishing.
  • OECD (2018), Estudios económicos de la OCDE. España, Noviembre 2018, Visión general, available in: http://www.oecd.org/economy/surveys/Spain-2018-OECD-economic-survey-vision-general.pdf.
  • OECD (2019a), Environmental related tax revenues, available in: https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx? dataSetCode=ENV_ENVPOLICY.
  • OECD (2019b), Taxing energy use 2019: Using taxes for climate action, Paris: OECD Publishing.
  • OTA (2017), “Methodology for analyzing a carbon tax”, US Department of the Treasury, WP 115, available in: https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/tax-policy/tax-analysis/Documents/WP-115.pdf.
  • Peters, S. (2012), “Distributional effects of Green fscal mechanisms in developing countries: lessons learned”, Inter-American Development Bank, Technical Notes 364.
  • Pomerleau, K. and Asen, E. (2019), “Carbon tax and revenue recycling: revenue, economic, and distributional implications”, Fiscal Fact, 674, Tax Foundation.
  • Rabl, A. and Spadaro, J. V. (2016), “External costs of energy: how much is clean energy worth?”, Journal of Solar Energy Engineering, 138: 040801.
  • Rausch, S., Metcalf, G. E., Reilly, J. M. and Paltsev, S. (2010), “Distributional implications of alternative U. S. greenhouse gas control measures”, The B. E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy, 10.
  • Renner, S., Lay, J. and Greve, H. (2018), “Household welfare and CO2 emission impacts of energy and carbon taxes in Mexico”, Energy Economics, 72: 222-235.
  • Requate, T. (2005), “Dynamic incentives by environmental policy instruments: a survey”, Ecological Economics, 54: 175-195.
  • Reynolds, M. and Smolensky, E. (1977), Public expenditure, taxes and the distribution income: The United States, 1950, 1961, 1970, New York: Academic Press.
  • Sainz-González, R., Núnez-Sánchez, R. and Coto-Millán, P. (2011), “The impact of airport fees on fares for the leisure air travel market: The case of Spain”, Journal of Air Transport Management, 17: 158-162.
  • Schultz, G. P. and Halstead, T. (2018), “The dividend advantage”, Climate Leadership Council, availa- ble in: https://www.clcouncil.org/media/The-Dividend-Advantage.pdf.
  • Seely, A. (2011), “Taxation of road fuels: the road fuel escalator”, Commons Briefng papers SN03015, House of Commons Library.
  • Slesnick, D. (1993), “Gaining ground: Poverty in the postwar United States”, Journal of Political Economy, 101: 1-38.
  • Stavins, R. N. (2003), “Experience with market-based environmental policy instruments”, in K. G. Mäller and J. R. Vincent (eds.), Handbook of environmental economics, vol. 1, Amsterdam: North Holland Elsevier, 355-435.
  • Sterner, T. (2012), “Distributional effects of taxing transport fuel”, Energy Policy, 41: 75-83.
  • Svenningsen, L. S. and Thorsen, B. J. (2020). “Preferences for distributional impacts of climate policy”, Environmental and Resource Economics, 75: 1-24.
  • Teixidó, J. J. and Verde, S. (2019), “Is the gasoline tax regressive in the twenty-first century? Taking wealth into account”, Ecological Economics, 138: 109-125.
  • Titheridge, H., Mackett, R. L., Christie, N., Oviedo, D. and Ye, R. (2014), “Transport and poverty: a review of the evidence”, UCL Transport Institute, University College London.
  • United Nations (UN) (2015), Paris Agreement, available in: https://unfccc.int/sites/default/fles/english_ paris_agreement.pdf.
  • United Nations (UN) (2019), Paris Agreement, Status of Ratifcation, available in: https://unfccc.int/es/ node/513.
  • Van Essen, H., Schroten, A., Otten, M., Sutter, D., Schreyer, C., Zandonella, R., Maibach, M. and Doll, C. (2011), External costs of transport in Europe: Update study for 2008, Netherlands: CE Delft, Infras and Faaunhofer ISI.
  • Van Essen, H., van Wijngaarden, L., Schroten, A., de Bruyn, S., Sutter, D., Bieler, C., Maffi, S., Bram- billa, M., Fiorello, D., Fermi, F., Parolin, R. and El Beyrouty, K. (2019), Handbook on the external costs of transport. Version 2019, Luxembourg: Publications Offce of the European Union.
  • Vivid Economics (2012), Carbon taxation and fscal consolidation: The potential of carbon pricing to re- duce Europe’s fscal defcits, ECF and GBE, available in: https://www.vivideconomics.com/casestudy/ carbon-taxation-and-fscal-consolidation-in-europe/.
  • Von der Leyen, U. (2019), A Union that strives for more. My agenda for Europe, available in: https:// ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-political/fles/political-guidelines-next-commission_en.pdf.
  • Wang, Q., Hubacek, K., Feng, K., Wei, Y.-M. and Liang, Q.-M. (2016), “Distributional effects of carbon taxation”, Applied Energy, 184: 1123-1131.
  • World Bank (2019a), State and trends of carbon pricing 2019, Washington, DC: World Bank.
  • World Bank (2019b), Using carbon revenues, Washington, DC: World Bank.
  • Zachmann, G., Fredriksson, G. and Claeys, G. (2019), “The distributional effects of climate policies”, Bruegel Blueprint Series, vol. 28.