How to use energy and environmental taxation for a just ecological transition in Spain: a proposal focused on fuels

Environmental taxes are key to the decarbonisation of any economy because of their advantages in terms of flexibility, effectiveness, promotion of innovation and generation of public resources. But in Spain there is still plenty of room to extend their use: the country currently ranks 24th in the EU27 by the weight of green taxes in GDP, and 21st in revenue.

The transport sector is of particular concern, with a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target that should be around 28%. Current levels of taxation and, above all, its design are:

• insufficient to achieve this or other objectives within the framework of the Paris Agreement
• unable to internalise the significant negative externalities associated with road transport
• and maintain an incoherent structure, with differences between fuels that run counter to the environmental damage caused, and to the goals of some parts of the Government.