Kris Bachus

Regulatory taxes as an instrument to foster sustainability transitions: an exploratory analysis

Environmental taxes can be efficient tools for successful environmental policy. Their use, however, has been limited in many countries. This thoughtful book explores the scope of environmental pricing and examines a variety of national experiences in environmental policy integration, to identify the most effective use of taxation and policy for environmental sustainability.

An approach towards socially acceptable energy saving policies via monetary instruments on the smart meter infrastructure

Energy savings are required, and behavioural change is a good guarantee for this. This paper presents an interdisciplinary four-step approach towards such energy savings. It is based on two types of monetary instruments (white certificates and complementary currencies), that make use of the smart meter infrastructure as a measurement platform for assessing the realised energy savings. A social component ensures that the system design will be accepted by the public at large.

The use of regulatory taxation as a policy instrument for sustainability transitions: old wine in new bottles or unexplored potential?

The burgeoning literature on sustainable transitions links persistent environmental problems to the functioning of socio-technical systems. Conventional policy instruments, such as environmental taxation, are often rejected by transition scholars but in-depth studies on their potential are scarce. This paper explores the potential of the instrument of environmental taxation for influencing sustainability transitions. The multi-level perspective and the multi-phase perspective from transition thinking and the social practices approach are combined with the environmental economics theories of Pigou and Coase. Our analysis shows that the highest impact of regulatory taxation will be realised at the end of the take-off phase and in the acceleration phase of a transition. Although important barriers exist and many conditions apply, regulatory environmental taxation, especially as part of a smart policy mix, has more potential for contributing to sustainability transitions than hitherto assumed.