Does the polluter profit? EHSs and EFSs: bonuses that save the environment and subsidies that foster pollution
Incentives, exemptions, benefits: every year the State spends 76 billion Euros on fiscal expenditure. But do these measures always respect the environment? Paradoxically, the answer is no. According to the first (and still incomplete) Catalogue of Environmental Subsidies, drafted by the Ministry of Environment with the technical advice of Sogesid, in 2016 about 16.2 billion Euros were allocated for SADs (EHSs - environmentally harmful subsidies), while 15.7 billion were allocated for SAFs (EFSs - environmentally friendly subsidies).
Is there a way to reorganise incentive mechanisms and subsidies in order to make them more consistent with the Italy's environmental targets?
The Catalogue of Environmental Subsidies - of which the Impact Assessment Office hereby publishes a critical review - has analysed the schemes approved by several governments so as to consider their preconditions and effectiveness from an environmental standpoint, in order to provide the public and the institutions with all the information required for the possible reform called for by G20, G7, OECD and other international bodies. The second edition of the Catalogue is due in July 2018.
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Focus (in English)