Environmental taxes - how public policy makers can use them in the decision-making process?

Environmental degradation is currently one of the biggest challenges for policy makers designing public policies. In particular, the emission of greenhouse gases as side effect of human activity is a significant problem. One of the methods and instruments used in the public sector to limit the progressing environmental degradation are environmental taxes. It is an element of fiscal policy used by countries around the world, including in the European Union, although it has no compulsory nature. So far, studies on the effectiveness of environmental taxes are not explicit. The effects of environmental taxes differ in EU countries, also environmental taxes systems are of different construction, and tax policies in this scope vary as well. This paper uses the taxonomic measure based on the Weber median to analyse the link between environmental taxes and environmental degradation. 23 EU countries belonging to OECD were analysed for 2016, on the basis of the Eurostat dataset. The study attempts to answer the question whether environmental taxes are an effective instrument for shaping environmental policy and whether they can become an important tool in the decision-making process at the government level. The paper assumes that the role of environmental taxes and their impact is different in developed and converging economies. The results prove a positive relationship between environmental taxes and environmental performance in the case of one indicator (Share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption) for others a negative link is reported.