Energy, transport, pollution and natural resources: Key elements in ecological taxation

The indiscriminate use of natural resources has highlighted the need to coordinate market instruments in order to encourage greater commitment to environmental responsibility, and to this end, environmental (or Pigouvian) taxes are increasingly used, in many countries. In this paper, we examine the main types of environmental taxes applied and analyse patterns of convergence/divergence among the 27 countries of the European Union regarding levels of environmental taxation, through an analysis of sigma convergence. This analysis reveals a slight trend toward the harmonisation of ‘green’ taxes.