Green taxes 2011

Green taxes are taxes imposed on activities that are harmful for the environment so that businesses and individuals must take into account the environmental cost of their activities on society. The environment is a public good that businesses and households generally use for free. Businesses and households are not confronted with prices that reflect the environmental cost of production and consumption on society in the form of impaired environment, loss of environmental quality, and in some cases irreversible damage to the life-supporting ecological processes. The consequence is an over-consumption of environmental resources. This stands in contrast to the use of, among other things, labour and capital, where companies are facing market-clearing prices. By impose an environmental equivalent to the damage imposed environment, the framework changes and companies and households will face the appropriate costs of production and consumption.

Table 1 gives an overview of the green taxes in Norway in 2011 and table 2 gives more detailed information about the CO₂-tax.

Table 1: Green taxes. 2011

Tax	Tax rate	Estimated revenue 2011. Mill. NOK	Introduced
Tax on CO2 emissions in petroleum activities on the continental shelf	varies, se table 2	2300	1991
Road usage tax on petrol, NOK/litre		7250	1933
Sulphur-free	4.62
Low sulphur	4.66
Road usage tax on auto diesel, NOK/litre		9400	1993
Sulphur-free	3.62
Low sulphur	3.67
Biodiesel	1,81
Lubrication oil tax, NOK/litre	1.83	105	1988
CO2-tax	varies, se table 2	4755	1991
Sulphur tax, NOK/litre per started 0,25 per cent weight share sulphur	0.076	50	1970
Tax on the final treatment of waste at landfill NOK/tonne		230	1999
biodegradable waste with dispensation	463
other waste delivered	280
Tax on health- and environmentally damaging chemicals			2000
Trichloreten, NOK/kg	63.18	2
Tetrachloreten, NOK/kg	63.18	2
Tax on greenhouse gasses HFC and PFC, NOK/tonne CO2 -equivalents	212	222	2003
Tax on emissions of NOX, NOK/kg	16.43	69	2007
Environmental tax on pesticides	Varies	66	1998
Base-tax on disposable packaging, NOK/unit	1.04	858	1994
Environmental tax on beverage packaging			1973
Carton and cardboard, NOK/unit	1.26	172
Plastics, NOK/unit	3.05	47
Metals, NOK/unit	5.06	143
Glass, NOK/unit	5.06	63
Sum environmental taxes		25 734
Electricity tax		7 700	1951
General rate, NOK/kWh	0.1121
Low rate (manufacturing), NOK/kWh	0.0045
Base-tax on mineral oil		1 700	2000
General rate, NOK/litre	0.983
Low rate (paper and pulp, dyes and pigments), NOK/litre	0.126
Sum environmental and energy related taxes		35 134
Motor vehicle registration tax	Varies	19 700	1955
Annual tax on motor vehicles	Varies	8 900	1917
Annual weight-based tax on vehicles	Varies	342	1993
Tax on marine engines NOK/hk	153	233	1978
Sum taxes that can influence the environment		64 309

Source: Ministry of Finance

 

Table 2: CO₂-tax.2011 

	Tax rates NOK/litre, NOK/kg or NOK/Sm3	Tax rates NOK/tonne CO2
Petrol	0.88	380
Mineral oil
High tax rate (domestic aviation)	0.69
Jet kerosene		270
General tax rate	0,59
Light fuel oil, diesel		222
Heavy fuel oil		188
Low tax rate (paper and pulp industry and fishmeal industry not covered by the emission trading scheme)	0.31
Light fuel oil, diesel		116
Heavy fuel oil		99
Gas for inland usage
Natural gas
General rate	0.44	221
Low rate (industry/mining and emissions covered by the emission trading scheme)	0,05	25
LPG	0.66	220
Petroleum activities
Light fuel oil, diesel	0.48	180
Heavy fuel oil	0.48	153
Natural gas	0.48	205

Source: Statistics Norway and Ministry of Finance