One way to achieve a more sustainable society would be to impose progressive taxes on goods that are particularly detrimental to the environment when consumed. Marginal tax rates would increase with an individual's consumption of those goods — for example, a person's annual flight history could be used to compute the fee for his or her next ticket.
Fixed-rate consumption taxes present equity issues, which hinder their applicability and effectiveness by placing much of the burden on those with low incomes (see, for example, C. A. Grainger and C. D. Kolstad Environ. Resour. Econ. 46, 359–376; 2010). Implementing progressive consumption taxes on specific goods is now possible because of the widespread use of smartphones, credit cards and the Internet, which mean that we can keep track of individual consumption patterns.
Although such taxes may be perceived as a limitation on our freedom, in my view they would be a credible implementation of the 'polluter pays' principle.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Orsi, F. Progressive taxes for sustainability. Nature 541, 464 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/541464e
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/541464e
This article is cited by
-
Add a tax to the EU agricultural policy
Nature (2017)