Tributação ecológica

Abstract

This paper focuses on taxation as an instrument for policies of environmental protection. In economics, it was Pigou who first proposed a tax solution for the problem of negative externalities. Considering the problems with the measurement of marginal social lasses, the basis Pigou proposed for taxation, there was an evolution towards the use of the amount of emissions as the basis for calculation. Taxation has not been the preferred instrument of public policies for the protection of the environment, legal restrictions being the most used. There is an international trend, however, towards the taxation of combustibles, due to the 1999 Kioto Protocol objective of reducing CO2 emission levels, considered the main cause of global warming. In Brazil, fuel taxation still is based on the potencial for the raising o tx incomes, and not in concerns with environmental protection.