At the invitation of the daily newspaper "Die Presse", WIFO environmental economist Angela Köppl, in the attic of the Juridicum of the University of Vienna, argued in a panel discussion with Daniel Ennöckl (Institute for Constitutional and Administrative Law), Sabine Kirchmayr-Schliesselberger (Institute for Financial Law), Franz Schellhorn (Agenda Austria) and Johannes Wahlmüller (Global 2000) that "taxes are a central element in attributing negative external effects to the polluter".
The tax revenues could be used in various ways. For example, a so-called eco-bonus would return the money to taxpayers in a lumpsum way or the money could be used to reduce the tax burden on labour. The underlying idea of CO2 taxes is their impact on behaviour when polluting activities become more expensive. According to Köppl, if someone is about to buy a new car, he would rather opt for an environmentally friendly car in the knowledge of the consequential costs. In order to increase public acceptability for a CO2 tax there should however be a social cushion to prevent that the new tax exhibits socially undesirable effects.
Further information (in German) can be found here.
At the Vienna Forum on Climate Action, where government negotiator Leonore Gewessler (Die Grünen) was one of the discussants, Köppl stressed, among other things, that CO2 pricing embedded in a broader policy package was an effective instrument for climate protection.
In addition, she listed four areas of action that are relevant for structural change and effective emission reduction: "Multifunctional buildings that go beyond the focus on single buildings and focus instead on neighbourhoods and that are actively integrated into the energy system, interlinked mobility understood as access to people, goods and services that avoids additional transport movements, integrated networks that operate in both directions and a different use of resources, materials and products in a circular economy."
Further information (in German) can be found here.
