Europe's Leaders In Environmental Taxation

Eurostat has released new data showing that environmental tax revenue across the European Union totalled €324.6 billion in 2018, a 3 percent increase on the previous year. That total is also 49 percent higher than in 2002 and it mainly consists of energy taxes (77.7 percent), followed by transport taxes (19.1 percent) and pollution and resource taxes (3.3 percent).

Environmental taxes as a share of total taxes & social contributions were highest in Latvia in 2018 at 10.9 percent, followed by Bulgaria with 9.8 percent and Greece with 9.5 percent. The lowest shares were seen in Luxembourg at 4.4 percent and Germany at 4.5 percent. The Eurostat data also showed taxes in several non-EU nations. Environmental taxes accounted for 7 percent of the UK's total tax revenue along with 6.2 percent of Switzerland's and 5.5 percent of Norway's.