The countries with the highest and lowest environmental taxes in Europe 

Government revenues from environmental taxes amounted to €364.4 bn in 2016 in the European Union (EU), compared with €296.5 bn in 2006. Over the same period, the share of environmental taxes in total government revenues from taxes and social contributions decreased from 6.4% in 2006 to 6.3% in 2016.

Taxes on energy accounted for more than three-quarters of the total revenues from environmental taxes (76.9% of the total), well ahead of taxes on transport (19.7%) and those on pollution and resources (3.4%).

Highest share of environmental taxes in Latvia, lowest in Luxembourg

The proportion of environmental taxes in total revenues from taxes and social contributions varied significantly across the EU Member States. In 2016, Latvia had the highest share of environmental taxes (11.7%), ahead of five other EU Member States with a share of at least 9%: Slovenia (10.6%), Greece (9.8%), Bulgaria (9.6%), Croatia (9.3%) and Romania (9.0%).

At the opposite end of the scale, Luxembourg (4.6%), Germany (4.8%) and France (4.9%) recorded the lowest shares of environmental taxes, followed by Belgium (5.0%) and Sweden (5.1%).

The share of environmental taxes in total government revenues from taxes and social contributions is one indicator of the EU Sustainable Development Goals and the Resource Efficiency Scoreboard. The scoreboard monitors the implementation of the roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe. Environmental taxes help to protect the environment as well as natural resources and this roadmap recommends a substantial increase in the share of environmental taxes in line with the best practice of Members States (shares exceeding 10%).

Source: eurostat – Environmental taxes in the EU

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