Tax systems are been modernized to deal with prevalent environmental, social, and economic challenges, including the environmental crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and overconsumption of natural resources. Tax sustainability is critical for addressing multiple aspects of the transition. The EU has adopted the European Green Deal with ambitious environmental and climate objectives and economic instruments, such as environmental taxes and trading schemes, which can support the transition process to a low-carbon world.
Some of these initiatives have already started to be implemented across Europe and also in Spain with taxes initiated in 2023, like tax measures in Law 7/2022 of 8 April on waste and contaminated soils for a circular economy, among others:
- The establishment of a tax on non-reusable plastic packaging, intended to reduce the number of units of these products that are put on the market, and therefore reduce their consumption, in order to prevent the generation of plastic waste, with the consequent reduction in waste management costs, especially those that could arise from their abandonment in the environment.
- The establishment of a tax on landfill and incineration of waste, intended to penalize less sustainable waste management options according to the waste hierarchy principle. This tax would apply to the disposal of waste in landfills and incineration facilities.
