Spain: Catalan Ministry of Environment supports the discussion about an environment fiscal reform

The Magazine of the Catalan Ministry of Environment recently published a special issue about
environmental taxation. In the editorial, the chief editor of the magazine sees fiscal reform as a necessity.

Other journalists analyse the reasons why such a reform has not taken place yet in Spain and try to understand the links between economy and ecology.

[Susanne Hasenhüttl, ÖGUT, 13/01/04] Recently
the “Revista Medi Ambient”, the Magazine of the
Catalan Ministry of Environment, published a
special edition on environmental taxation. The way
how the different articles were written showed a
friendly position towards the idea.
Lluis Reales, chief-editor of the magazine, states in
the editorial that environmental fiscal reform is a
necessity, but that it is the high costs that cause
problems with widespread implementing. He sees a
great chance in educating people ecologically
through taxation. For a successful and accepted
fiscal reform in favour of the environment, Reales
sees three necessities:

1. great transparency
2. public awareness through the
dissemination of information
3. and finally also mediation.

Catalunya has already shown that environmental
taxation fails if the three are not combined.
In one of the articles, Tulio Rosembuj (University
of Barcelona), describes the story of environmental
taxation during the last 25 years. He sees a change
from an academic discussion to a political and
economic one. For him, environmental tax reform
means a stimulation for technology. On the other
hand, he also see costs as the main problem,
regardless of whether ETR takes place- : if there is
no environmental fiscal reform, the costs of our
environment rise; if there is one, the costs rise in
other fields, which makes it useful to invest in a
fiscal reform, as it helps mankind to survive.

An article written by Jordi Ortega, investigator for
the Ministry and a member of EEB, calls for a
wider perspective: for him, the economy can no
longer be regarded merely in terms of economic
statistics. Social and environmental facts have to be
integrated into economy and politics. Ortega asks
whether environmental fiscal reform can be the
ultimate solution to environmental problems. His
answer is the problem of the “irrational”
development of the global situation, e.g. climate
change, which is too difficult to foresee. Still,
Ortega is also in favour of a reform of that kind,
which he finds to be an adequate instrument. As
climate change is not a local but global problem
and environmental fiscal reforms can only be
implemented locally, the author sees a form of
injustice that could also be called a kind of
“ecoimperialism”. Many ecologic taxes might
punish the consumer more than huge enterprises,
which is just further proof of ecoimperialism.
Finally, the magazine contains an interview with
Jordi Roca and Enric Tello, both lecturers at the
University of Barcelona.

They bring the topic back to a global and academic dimension, discussing
ideas like whether the market is able to solve
economic problems or not. The discussion turns
rather academic at that point: if the market is able
to cause the problems, it might as well solve them,
too. Finally they state that Spain, as a state, opened
the discussion about environmental fiscal reform
far too late. Local initiatives only have a minor
effect, they claim. Still, the Barcelona experience
with public subsidies for solar energy, which turned
into a fiscal project, seems to be a good approach
for the two scientists as long as information is kept
transparent.

Most of all, Jordi Roca and Enric Tello state,
governments should stick to their international
environmental agreements. Environmental fiscal
reform will then be one tool out of many to
implement the international and local goals.