The Impact of Environmental Taxes on Mitigation of Pollution in Agriculture: The Theoretical Approach

Abstract The research problem is based on the increasing global environmental pollution, reduction of the natural potential of countries, and the importance of exploration of effective measures for the solution of these issues. The research analyzes the impact of environmental taxes as an environmental policy instrument helping reduce environmental pollution and increase the natural potential of agriculture. Environmental taxes are one of the most important tools for the reduction of GHG emissions in the EU. The research aim is to theoretically substantiate the role and impact of environmental taxes on the mitigation of pollution in agriculture. Research results present that environmental taxes have generic and specific goals and are related to the conventional tax functions: fiscal, regulatory, and redistributory. The identified strengths, weaknesses, applicability, and limitations of the environmental taxes enabled the identification of the prospects of these taxes in terms of pollution mitigation. The classification schemes of the environmental taxes were prepared with the environmental taxes grouped by various attributes. Moreover, the environmental tax objects were identified and substantiated, in particular, those in agriculture. The possibilities and limitations of application of the environmental taxes to agriculture in the context of the implementation of the European Green Deal were described. The following theoretical methods were used in order to substantiate the problem’s relevance: scientific literature analysis, comparative analysis, systemic analysis, document analysis, generalization analysis, and other common research methods. The bibliometric method was used in the analysis of the relations between environmental taxes goals and functions from the theoretical perspective.