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Environmental Ambitions Meet Industry Protection : The Swedish Approach to Energy Taxation

Johansson, Bengt LU and Khan, Jamil LU orcid (2023) In EEES Report
Abstract (Swedish)
Since the 1990s, economic policy instruments have become increasingly important to Swedish climate policy. To understand the characteristics of current systems, this paper presents an analysis of the development of economic policy instruments since the 1950s, with a focus on Swedish industry. Since the introduction of energy taxation, industry has received preferential treatment in the interests of protecting competitiveness. Path dependency, as well as concerns regarding competitiveness, have hampered major reforms necessary to make the system more feasible for CO2 mitigation. Although this was less critical while climate policy goals were relatively modest, as the level of ambition grew it became more problematic. To this end,... (More)
Since the 1990s, economic policy instruments have become increasingly important to Swedish climate policy. To understand the characteristics of current systems, this paper presents an analysis of the development of economic policy instruments since the 1950s, with a focus on Swedish industry. Since the introduction of energy taxation, industry has received preferential treatment in the interests of protecting competitiveness. Path dependency, as well as concerns regarding competitiveness, have hampered major reforms necessary to make the system more feasible for CO2 mitigation. Although this was less critical while climate policy goals were relatively modest, as the level of ambition grew it became more problematic. To this end, complementary instruments have been proposed and to a certain extent, implemented.
This study illustrates the long history of energy and environmental taxation in Sweden and how important concerns about industrial competitiveness have been when designing energy and climate policies. It has also shown that the introduction of carbon pricing was not a radical policy shift but rather an adaptation of the existing system to new circumstances. The development could thus be seen as an example of policy path dependency.
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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Book/Report
publication status
published
subject
keywords
carbon pricing, Carbon tax, path dependency, Industry, Sweden, carbon pricing, carbon tax, path dependency, industry, Sweden
in
EEES Report
pages
35 pages
report number
131
ISSN
1102-3651
ISBN
978-91-86961-57-2
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
542d4c62-255c-4c05-a399-b08ebc0ce6bf
date added to LUP
2023-10-11 18:00:30
date last changed
2023-11-02 13:46:25
@techreport{542d4c62-255c-4c05-a399-b08ebc0ce6bf,
  abstract     = {{Since the 1990s, economic policy instruments have become increasingly important to Swedish climate policy. To understand the characteristics of current systems, this paper presents an analysis of the development of economic policy instruments since the 1950s, with a focus on Swedish industry. Since the introduction of energy taxation, industry has received preferential treatment in the interests of protecting competitiveness.  Path dependency, as well as concerns regarding competitiveness, have hampered major reforms necessary to make the system more feasible for CO2 mitigation. Although this was less critical while climate policy goals were relatively modest, as the level of ambition grew it became more problematic. To this end, complementary instruments have been proposed and to a certain extent, implemented.<br/>This study illustrates the long history of energy and environmental taxation in Sweden and how important concerns about industrial competitiveness have been when designing energy and climate policies. It has also shown that the introduction of carbon pricing was not a radical policy shift but rather an adaptation of the existing system to new circumstances. The development could thus be seen as an example of policy path dependency.<br/>}},
  author       = {{Johansson, Bengt and Khan, Jamil}},
  isbn         = {{978-91-86961-57-2}},
  issn         = {{1102-3651}},
  keywords     = {{carbon pricing; Carbon tax; path dependency; Industry; Sweden; carbon pricing; carbon tax; path dependency; industry; Sweden}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{10}},
  number       = {{131}},
  series       = {{EEES Report}},
  title        = {{Environmental Ambitions Meet Industry Protection : The Swedish Approach to Energy Taxation}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/161506740/EEES_report_131_Env_ambitions_meet_industry_protection.pdf}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}