The Exploration of Carbon Tax Legal System In Northern Europe

As World Bank (2022) claimed in Trends of Carbon Pricing 2021, there were 64 carbon pricing instruments (CPIs) in operation in 2021 globally, with 35 judicial districts operated carbon tax system therein. Carbon tax, as one of the carbon pricing tools, is one way to control the emission of carbon dioxide. As one of the most efficient market-based mitigation system, carbon tax has been adopted by some Nordic countries at first, such like Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands and Norway. The exploration on how these legal system of carbon tax operate can provide great reference and caution for other countries that to consider operating the carbon tax in the future. In this article, we will choose carbon tax legal systems in Finland, Denmark and Sweden as observation subjects, parallel compare the elements such like tax rate, tax subject, the cooperation with the EU ETS and the latest development of carbon tax. The experience gained from these relatively complete carbon tax systems might be helpful to other countries, with strong responsibility to the global climate change and positive attitude to protect our home. Meanwhile, the positive influence to the domestic emission reduction caused by carbon tax might encourage more governments take carbon tax into account.