Environmental taxation and industrial water use in Spain (original) (raw)
Related papers
Water
The treatment of wastewater, financed through environmental taxes, is key to the development of a sustainable economy. The objective of this study is to verify whether the tax loads on wastewater discharges applied in Spain are effective, allowing the costs of secondary and tertiary treatments to be financed. First, the revenues collected from taxes related to the discharge of wastewater in the different Spanish regions, which reach an average value of 0.72 €/m3, are analysed. Second, the costs of secondary wastewater treatment, prolonged aeration, activated sludge with nutrient removal, and activated sludge without nutrient removal are studied. Additionally, the costs of tertiary treatments, with environmental objectives and for reuse purposes, are considered. The analysis carried out reveals high heterogeneity in the amounts collected through taxes in the different Autonomous Communities. In some cases, these amounts do not cover the costs of the treatments. An urgent review is th...
Urban Water Tariffs in Spain: What Needs to Be Done?
Recently, in the context of the Integrated Water Resources Management, demand policies are playing a more important role as opposed to traditional supply policies based on the construction of large hydraulic infrastructures. In this new context, water tariffs have become an important tool in achieving economic efficiency, environmental sustainability, and social equity. This paper reviews the situation of urban water tariffs in Spain, a country subject to high water stress. It analyzes the capacity of urban water tariffs to recover service costs and to promote efficiency, sustainability, affordability, and equity. Although it has made significant progress in recent years, the Spanish urban water tariff system still faces many challenges. Many of these challenges would be better addressed by a national independent regulatory body.
The Tax Burden on Wastewater and the Protection of Water Ecosystems in EU Countries
Sustainability, 2018
80% of all wastewater is discharged into the environment without first eliminating contaminants, and the consequences are cause for concern. The ecotaxes levied on effluents in many developed countries are aimed at preventing and minimizing water pollution and also, in part, helping to finance proper water reclamation facilities. The aim of this study is to conduct a comparative analysis of the current tax burden in a set of European Union countries on wastewater discharges and to assess its relationship with the quality of fresh water and other economic and political variables. The paper draws on different theoretical arguments and estimates a panel data model to verify the effectiveness of taxes in protecting aquatic ecosystems. These taxes are directly dependent on the environmental health status of water and inversely linked to the volume of discharged wastewater. In addition, a direct relationship is found between the tax burden on wastewater discharges and the variables representing the Human Development Index, the per capita expenditure on protecting water resources, the relative weight of ecotaxes in a country's total tax revenues, and public support for green political movements.
Cost of Urban Wastewater Treatment and Ecotaxes: Evidence from Municipalities in Southern Europe
Water, 2019
The principle of cost recovery established by the Water Framework Directive underlines the need for tax rates, which can raise enough revenue to finance the cost of treatments applied to wastewater. The objective of this research is to gain an understanding the different types of charges related to urban wastewater treatment that can be levied by the authorities responsible for this service. This paper also aims to determine whether these taxes contribute to guaranteeing the economic feasibility of the wastewater treatment plants. The proposed methodological approach is applied to 18 municipalities of a province in southern Europe in 2017. The results confirm that in most of these cases, the taxes levied do not guarantee adequate tax revenues to cover the running, maintenance and investment costs of municipal wastewater treatment plants. This situation leads to a lack of financial self-sufficiency in the wastewater management service, meaning that the imbalance between income and ex...
Drivers of Water Supply Costs in Mediterranean Spain
Urban Growth and the Circular Economy, 2018
This work analyses the drivers of water supply costs relying on a panel data model within a sample of Spanish Mediterranean municipalities between 2014 and 2016, in the provinces of Alicante and Murcia. These provinces have been chosen due to their common feature: water scarcity in the Southeast of Spain. The source of the dependent variable of the econometric model (costs) is a new dataset called actual cost of services of local entities (CESEL, in Spanish), which is published by Ministry of Finance and Civil Service. This new source emerged in response to financial problems experienced by local entities after the global crisis. Bearing in mind the homogeneity of municipalities studied in terms of water management, selected drivers of the equation focus on urban growth and demographic factors. The findings show that urban variables, such as higher net urban density, have a significant impact on the decrease of water supply costs.
Theoretical Economics Letters, 2013
Market failure involving pollution from wastewater discharges industrials, is corrected with the establishment of environmental taxes. Heterogeneity in the design of these taxes, with a different tax base for each EU member country, affects both the pollution parameters considered and their weight in the calculation of the tax payable. This paper presents a study on the variety of this tax in Belgium, Italy and Spain. Finally, we discuss the possibility of the same as correcting market failure.
2010
Using information on a basic or "lifeline" level of domestic water use obtained from a water demand function based on a StoneeGeary utility function, a minimum water threshold of 128 m 3 per household per year was estimated in a sample of municipalities in Southern Spain. As a second objective, water affordability indexes were then calculated that relate the cost of such lifeline to average municipal income levels. The analysis of the factors behind the differences in that ratio across Andalusian municipalities shows that the relative cost of purchasing the lifeline appears inversely related to average income levels, revealing an element of regressivity in the component of water tariffs affecting the least superfluous part of the household's consumption. The main policy recommendation would involve redesigning water tariffs in order to improve access for lower income households to an amount of water sufficient to cover their basic needs. The proposed methodology could be applied to other geographical areas, both from developed and from developing countries, in order to analyze the degree of progressivity of the water tariffs currently in effect and in order to guide the design of more equitable regulatory policies.
THE EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL TAXES An empirical study of water and solid waste levies in Flanders
Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 1995
Environmental problems are considered by the majority of economic agents as important factors in making public policy. As a result, economic and market-integrated instruments are increasingly being used as alternatives to traditional environmental policy instruments. This article aims to determine the actual effect of environmental taxes on pollution levels. I n particulw, a case study of Flemish environmental taxes on water and solid waste pollution is reported. A quantitative model for testing the actual effectiveness of environmental taxes is developed, based on similar studies that analysed Dutch environmental policy. The conclusions of this analysis are extended with a qualitative analysis of information provided by in-depth interviews. Datadriven empirical research of the Flemish situation does not * This article is the result of extensive research undertaken at the University of Antwerp, University Centre of Antwerp (RUCA), and at the Free University of Brussels (VUB), Department of Strategic Planning. The authors wish to thank G. Haemels (OVAM), H. Dumont (VMM) and an anonymous referee for their helpful comments on an earlier version of the paper. ** RBsumB en fin #article; Zusammenfassung am Ende des Artikels; restimen a1 fin del articulo. oCIRIEC 1995. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 lJF, UK and 238 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
A never-ending debate: demand versus supply water policies. A CGE analysis for Catalonia
Water Policy, 2012
Water scarcity is a long-standing problem in Catalonia, as there are significant differences in the spatial and temporal distribution of water through the territory. There has consequently been a debate for many years about whether the solution to water scarcity must be considered in terms of efficiency or equity, the role that the public sector must play and the role that market-based instruments should play in water management. The aim of this paper is to use a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model to analyze the advantages and disadvantages associated with different policy 1 instruments, from both a supply and a demand viewpoint, which can be applied to water management in Catalonia. We also introduce an ecological sector in our CGE model, allowing us to analyze the environmental impact of the alternative policies simulated. The calibration of the exogenous variables of the CGE model is performed by using a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for the Catalan economy with 2001 data. The results suggest that taking into account the principle of sustainability of the resource, the policy debate between supply and demand in water policies is obsolete, and a new combination of policies is required to respect the different values associated with water.
Economic analysis of water reuse in Spain
The remarkable development of reuse of water in Spain has taken place not only because of the necessity to extend water supplies, but also due to the requirements to improve the management in water treatment. Water supply consumption has increased, along with the increase of population that has taken place in numerous urban zones. As a result, traditional supplying sources are insufficient to satisfy the demand, which is in permanent expansion. This paper will analyze from an economical point of view, the effects of the Directive 91/271/EEC in Spain, as well as the new rule that appears in the Order in Council of December 8, 2007 in which the legal regime of treated water reuse is established. Furthermore, costs of reused and recycled water by means of different treatment systems will be discussed, as well as the environmental costs associated to them.