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In the literature on the subject, it is argued that tax policy is one of the tools stimulating the transition toward sustainable economies. Public authorities can use two functions for this purpose: fiscal and non-fiscal functions. High emission rates and the rising rapid atmospheric changes that come with them are serious threats to the climate and sustainable development. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is one of the goals towards which the world strives (including the EU), so as to keep a balance between people's expectations, economic aspects, and the needs of the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to explain whether, along with other factors, environmental policy and its component "green taxes" can act as a factor in limiting greenhouse gas emissions. The purpose of this article is to seek an answer to the question of whether "green taxes" as an instrument of tax policy are a significant factor influencing climate change by contributing to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This article attempts to identify the determinants of greenhouse gas emissions (the dependent variable) using the method of linear regression analysis. Multiple linear regression models are used to predict the value of the dependent variable based on the values of the independent variables (identified from the literature). Trading of CO2 emissions was not included in the analysis due to lack of data. The regression analysis was carried out using specialized statistical software (SPSS). The authors negatively verified the hypothesis that environmental taxes are a significant determinant of greenhouse gas emission reductions compared to the analyzed determinants. "Population", "current and capital transfers for environmental protection", and "supply, transformation and consumption of solid fossil fuels" are the most important factors influencing greenhouse gas emissions. Changing consumer behavior (as an effect of the non-fiscal function of taxes) appears to be an extremely important factor in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Hence, the public authorities should promote behaviors conducive to their reduction by means of incentives, and not mainly taxation of negative behavior or fiscal incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most countries, notably those that signed the Paris Climate Agreement, prioritize achieving the zero carbon or carbon neutrality aim. Unlike earlier studies, this one assesses the contribution of environmental policy, clean energy, green innovation, and renewable energy to the E7 economies' achievement of carbon neutrality goals from 1990 to 2019. Findings emanating from the study show that the EKC hypothesis is valid in E7 countries. Implying that emissions in the E7 countries increased with the kick-off of development but declined later due to possible potent environmental regulatory policies put in place. Similarly, across all models, renewable energy (REN), green innovations (GINNO), environmental tax (ETAX), and technological innovations (TECH) were found to exert a negative and significant impact on carbon emissions in the E7 countries both in the short and long run. On the other hand, economic expansion (GDP) positively impacts environmental deterioration. Furthermore, the country-specific result shows that, on average, Brazil, India, China, Russia, Mexico, and Indonesia have significant environmental policies aiding carbon abatement. Except for Brazil, Mexico, and Indonesia, the income growth in the rest of the countries does not follow the EKC proposition. Furthermore, the causality result revealed a unidirectional causal relationship between GDP, REN, and GINNO to CO2 emission. No causality was found between ETAX with CO2, while a bi-directional causality exists between technology and CO2 emissions. Based on the finding, policymakers in the E7 countries should move away from fossil fuels because future electricity output will not be sufficient to reduce emissions considerably. Environmental regulations, encouraging technological innovation, adopting green and sustainable technology, and clean energy sources, among other things, demand radical and broad changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The constant rise in the consumption of resources puts the environment under pressure. Most resources are non-renewable in nature, which is why they must be utilized with great care. For this reason, the European Union devotes increasingly more attention to their efficient use. It deals with these aspects, making an effort to maintain the long-term competitiveness and to secure sustainable development in line with all of the related environmental impacts. In this context, several goals have been set out, to which the individual EU member states are bound. A method for monitoring resource efficiency was developed, consisting of indicators, the aim of which is to assess the efficiency of the use of soil, water, energy, with the most fundamental one being resource productivity. The results of the efficiency of use of the individual resources in the member states greatly differ, even without further investigating the links and correlations between the indicators. Research on the interrelationships of the individual indicators in terms of mutual influence has not yet been completed. The aim of our study was to define the correlation between the main indicator, resource productivity, and the other indicators at the level of the EU and its member states. For this purpose, we prepared a database with data which, for the sake of uniformity, were obtained from the publicly available Eurostat database. Subsequently, the data were analyzed and evaluated using the statistical software JMP 15 by a regression and correlation analysis. By using the multiple regression analysis, we created a model describing the significance of the impact of the observed variables on the resulting resource productivity of the EU member states. Generally, there is a positive correlation between the resource productivity and the Eco-Innovation index, as well as the utilization rate of recycled materials. For the sake of comparison, we developed a regression model at the level of the V4 countries, with the aim of evaluating the impact of the historical background of the countries on their contemporary ability to reach the goals set out by the environmental policy. The V4 countries are lagging far behind in meeting all of the environmental policy objectives, not only in tracking the main indicator (resource productivity) on which the multiple regression analysis is based. It was interesting to find that the multiple regression model at the V4 level does not include the indicators defined by the EU level model, the key ones, in this case, being water productivity, energy dependence, energy productivity, and environmental tax. This finding may also, after further analyses, be the key for other countries joining the EU in the future, in defining the weaknesses of the newly acceding states in terms of the EU's move towards a circular economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current EU energy and climate policy targets a significant reduction of carbon dioxide emissions in the forthcoming years. Carbon pricing, embedded in the EU emissions trading system, aims at achieving emission reductions in a more evenly spread way and at the lowest overall cost for society, compared with other environmental policy tools, such as coal or electricity taxes, or incentives such as subsidies on renewables. Still, the implementation of the decarbonization policy depends on several technical parameters such as the type, size and connectivity of the energy system as well as economic restrictions that occur. Within this paper, an optimization tool will be presented, focusing on cleaner energy production and on the control and reduction of environmental impact regarding energy storage solutions. Various types of batteries are examined and evaluated towards this direction. Emphasis is given to setting new criteria for the decision-making process, considering the size of battery storage and the selection of the battery type based on the environmental impact assessment parameter. The objective function of the system is formulated so as to evaluate, monitor and finally minimize environmental emissions, focusing mainly on carbon emissions. Optimization is carried out based on mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP). Two of the main battery types compared are lead–acid and lithium-ion; both of them result in results worth mentioning regarding the replacement impact (seven times during system lifetime for lead–acid) and the total environmental impact comparison (lithium-ion may reach a 60% reduction compared to lead–acid). Case studies are presented based on representative scenarios solved, which underline the importance of choosing the appropriate scope for each case and demonstrate the potential of the tool developed, as well as the possibilities for its further improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decarbonization is an activity aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions to limit climate change and global warming. Ensuring macroeconomic stabilization is the basis for ecological action. The question is whether macroeconomic stabilization helps companies, institutions and countries act for decarbonization. This article presents research on the impact of components of macroeconomic stabilization on decarbonization and energy efficiency in the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the European Union from 1990 to 2020. We focus on the following countries, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain. The contribution to knowledge is using the pentagon of macroeconomic stabilization to assess macroeconomic stabilization's impact on decarbonization and energy efficiency. According to the correlation coefficients, the Ordinary Least Squares and the Seemingly Unrelated Regression method, there is a statistically significant impact of components of macroeconomics stabilization on decarbonization and energy efficiency. Moreover, our models show a different strength and direction of relationships between the explained and explanatory variables. Research results confirm the necessity to coordinate the macroeconomic with environmental policy. We think that it is essential to use effective tools of economic support (European Union Emissions Trading System, environmental taxes) and greater pressure from European Union institutions on countries that emit harmful substances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attaining sustainable development and cleaner production is a major challenge both for developed and developing economies; income, institutional regulations, institutional quality and international trade are the key determinants of environmental externalities. The current work attempts to study the role of environmental taxes and regulations on renewable energy generation for developed economies. For that, the authors have used the annual dataset for the period 1994 to 2018. More specifically, the study investigates the impacts of environmental taxes, environment-related technologies and the environmental policy stringency index on renewable electricity generation in 29 developed countries. Given the short available data of these countries, the authors have developed panel cointegration and panel regressions models (fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), quantile regressions). The heterogeneous panel empirics stated that environmental regulations and income level support renewable electricity generation. The conclusions further mention that bureaucratic qualities such as decision making and trade openness tend to reduce renewable energy generation. The empirical findings allowed us to draw new narrative and implications. Overall, the conclusions argue that innovative regulations and policies can be useful for attaining specific sustainable development goals (e.g., SDG-7: cleaner and cheap energy). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]