The Environmental Effects of Tax Differentiation by Vehicle Characteristics

The Environmental Effects of Tax Differentiation by Vehicle Characteristics
Author: International Institute for Environment and Development
Publisher: IIED
Total Pages: 35
Release: 2000
Genre: Air
ISBN: 1904035272

Urban pollution, particularly from exhaust fumes, is a growing problem in Costa Rica, as elsewhere. Policy makers have tried to solve the problem through traditional regulatory instruments. But at the same time, other policy initiatives, such as reducing taxes, have contributed to greater car ownership and use, and hence, pollution levels. This study looks at whether the government's practice of differentiating car taxes on the basis of vehicle characteristics can be used to improve air quality in Costa Rica. The results indicate that a tax that increases the relative price of used cars will have significant environmental impacts, while other means of differentation are much weaker.

Reducing Gasoline Consumption

Reducing Gasoline Consumption
Author: Terry Dinan
Publisher: Nova Biomedical Books
Total Pages: 86
Release: 2003
Genre: Nature
ISBN:

Several Members of Congress and public interest groups have recently proposed policies that would reduce gasoline consumption in the United States. Such proposals stem primarily from a desire to enhance the nation's energy security and to decrease its emissions of carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas that affects the Earth's climate. This book compares three methods of reducing gasoline consumption: increasing the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards that govern passenger vehicles, raising the federal tax on gasoline, and setting a limit on carbon emissions from gasoline combustion and requiring gasoline producers to hold allowances for those emissions (a policy known as a cap-and-trade program). Also, the book weighs the relative merits of those policies against several major criteria: whether they would minimise costs to producers and consumers; how reliably they would achieve a given reduction in gasoline use; their implications for automobile safety; and their effects on such factors as traffic congestion, requirements for highway construction, and emissions of air pollutants other than carbon dioxide. In addition, the book examines two more policy implications that lawmakers may be concerned about: the impact on people at different income levels and in different regions, and the effects on federal revenue.

Cost, Effectiveness, and Deployment of Fuel Economy Technologies for Light-Duty Vehicles

Cost, Effectiveness, and Deployment of Fuel Economy Technologies for Light-Duty Vehicles
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 812
Release: 2015-09-28
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309373913

The light-duty vehicle fleet is expected to undergo substantial technological changes over the next several decades. New powertrain designs, alternative fuels, advanced materials and significant changes to the vehicle body are being driven by increasingly stringent fuel economy and greenhouse gas emission standards. By the end of the next decade, cars and light-duty trucks will be more fuel efficient, weigh less, emit less air pollutants, have more safety features, and will be more expensive to purchase relative to current vehicles. Though the gasoline-powered spark ignition engine will continue to be the dominant powertrain configuration even through 2030, such vehicles will be equipped with advanced technologies, materials, electronics and controls, and aerodynamics. And by 2030, the deployment of alternative methods to propel and fuel vehicles and alternative modes of transportation, including autonomous vehicles, will be well underway. What are these new technologies - how will they work, and will some technologies be more effective than others? Written to inform The United States Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards, this new report from the National Research Council is a technical evaluation of costs, benefits, and implementation issues of fuel reduction technologies for next-generation light-duty vehicles. Cost, Effectiveness, and Deployment of Fuel Economy Technologies for Light-Duty Vehicles estimates the cost, potential efficiency improvements, and barriers to commercial deployment of technologies that might be employed from 2020 to 2030. This report describes these promising technologies and makes recommendations for their inclusion on the list of technologies applicable for the 2017-2025 CAFE standards.

Environmental Taxation in Practice

Environmental Taxation in Practice
Author: Thomas Sterner
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 605
Release: 2017-05-15
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1351939505

Since the 1980's, market-based instruments for environmental policy have become increasingly important. Focusing on environmental taxation in practice, this volume collects key contributions on a wide range of topics, including comparisons of environmental taxation schemes in different countries, political economy issues and key aspects of concrete implementation. It presents a wealth of ex-ante and ex-post analyses, intended as a source of guidance for policy implementation and research. The volume features a full-length introduction locating the literature on environmental taxation in practice in a wider context of theoretical and applied issues.

Environmental impacts and potential of the sharing economy

Environmental impacts and potential of the sharing economy
Author: John Magne Skjelvik
Publisher: Nordic Council of Ministers
Total Pages: 81
Release: 2017-10-19
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9289351578

The various sharing initiatives seen in the Nordic countries over the last years within transportation, housing/accommodation, sharing/renting of smaller capital goods and personal services could yield considerable benefits for consumers due to better quality and/or lower prices of the services. They also have a potential for emissions reductions of CO2 and local pollutants. However, savings from lower prices could lead to increased emissions from increased demand of the services (particularly transport) and increased spending on other goods and services. Depending on how consumers spend their savings, these changes could partly, wholly or more than offset the initial emission reductions. The impacts on overall CO2 emissions depend on whether the emissions are taxed, part of the emissions trading system EU ETS or not regulated at all.

Automobile Pollution Control in Brazil

Automobile Pollution Control in Brazil
Author: Claudio Ferraz
Publisher: IIED
Total Pages: 29
Release: 2013
Genre:
ISBN: 1843693070

Air pollution concentrations have been rapidly increasing in the major urban areas of Brazil caused mainly by the increasing use of vehicles. In the presence of this negative externality, environmental regulation is required. Car emission control policies in Brazil have relied basically on mandatory emission standards and subsidies for specific cleaner technology resulting in substantial decrease of car emission rates. Nevertheless, car sale taxes, differentiated by vehicles' size and fuel, have also influenced car emission patterns. This paper analyzes the compliance trend of the Brazilian fleet with environmental standards between 1992 and 1997. We find that larger automobiles had the fastest compliance schedule while popular models adjusted very slowly. Also gasoline-fueled models had a faster adjustment pattern than ethanol cars. Additionally, we analyze the current relationship between pollution emissions and car characteristics in order to orient policy formulation. We find a positive relationship between emissions rates and horse power, concluding that although the current value added-sale car tax is not environmental harmful, a tax differentiating clean from dirty models, within each tax bracket, could create substantial incentives for emission control in the future.

Is the Environment a Luxury?

Is the Environment a Luxury?
Author: Silvia Tiezzi
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2014-07-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317820347

The purpose of this collection of essays is to shed some light on the complex relationship between environmental quality and the distribution of income. Are the preferences of the poor towards a cleaner environment really different from those of the rich? Environmental economists have traditionally focused on efficiency issues. In their analyses the quality of the environment is usually related to aggregate or average variables, like per capita income; policy recommendations are usually formulated considering efficiency with no regard for equity and also the predicted effects of policies are evaluated in aggregate terms. The essays collected in this volume go into the problem of the relationship between environmental quality and income distribution. The book’s opening essay shows how different theories of economic growth and environmental quality seem to suggest that the higher the level of income the higher is the value of environmental protection. The essays that follow, a mix of already published papers and of papers solicited for this book, analyse the relationship between environmental quality and income distribution from different perspectives (both micro and macro) and on the basis of more than one methodology. This book highlights that the preferences of the poor towards a cleaner environment may differ from those of the rich, but income is also very likely to represent only one factor affecting them. The essays consider other relevant factors affecting preferences for environmental quality. What clearly emerges is that the distribution of costs and benefits of environmental policies is the key for their successful implementation, and that further research is needed to both address the distributional effects themselves and the strategies to mitigate them.