Introduction to the Issues and the Book
Introduction to the Issues and the Book
This chapter sets the scene for the book as a whole. It presents the arguments on the urgent need to achieve absolute decoupling of economic growth and performance from environmental impact; the policies that can be used to achieve decoupling and improve the environment; and the contribution that the environment and economic growth make to human well-being. The chapter introduces the concept of environmental tax reform (ETR)—a policy for the reform of the national tax system, whereby the burden of taxes is shifted from conventional taxes, such as those levied on labour and capital (‘goods’), to taxes on environmentally related activities that involve resource use, particularly energy, or environmental pollution (‘bads’). It then discusses why it is likely that relative prices, and therefore ETR, have an essential role to play in achieving absolute decoupling. It then outlines the structure of the book and the main themes of the chapters that follow.
Keywords: decoupling, well-being, taxes, environmental pollution, energy
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