Flyger skälen för slopandet av flygskatten? En rättsvetenskaplig analys av avskaffandet av flygskatten i förhållande till Parisavtalet
(2025) LAGF03 20251Department of Law
Faculty of Law
- Abstract
- Aviation tax has for many years been a part of the Swedish tax system. The aviation tax is categorized as an excise duty, which refers to taxes applied to certain goods and services that are considered as harmful to the public health and to society as a whole. After a session in the Swedish Parliment, it was decided that the avitation tax will be abolished on the 1st of July this year (2025). The decision has received mixed reactions, including both expressions of approval and more concerned opinions.
Sweden has for a long time been a party to several different international agreements created with the purpose of counteracting the climate changes that have emerged as a trend in recent years. One of the most prominent of these agreements... (More) - Aviation tax has for many years been a part of the Swedish tax system. The aviation tax is categorized as an excise duty, which refers to taxes applied to certain goods and services that are considered as harmful to the public health and to society as a whole. After a session in the Swedish Parliment, it was decided that the avitation tax will be abolished on the 1st of July this year (2025). The decision has received mixed reactions, including both expressions of approval and more concerned opinions.
Sweden has for a long time been a party to several different international agreements created with the purpose of counteracting the climate changes that have emerged as a trend in recent years. One of the most prominent of these agreements is the Paris Agreement which regulates the emissions of greenhouse gas by its member states, as these emissions are considered the main contributing factor to global warming. A question that comes to light because of the abolition of the aviation tax is whether the commitments that apply to Sweden as a result of the agreement are being disregarded due to the decision. The aim of the thesis is therefore to examine whether the abolition of the aviation tax entails such a disregard.
To examine the questions of the thesis, the current regulation of the aviation tax is first presented. Thereafter, the most important articles of the Paris Agre-ement, Articles 2 and 4, are analysed in order to establish Sweden´s obligations under the agreement. Furthermore, the expression highest possible am-bition, which appears in Article 4, is interpreted using the operation described in Article 31 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. The result of the interpretation shows that the expression is a central concept in the Paris Agreement that obliges the parties to create progressive climate plans that must be continuously improved, thereby including a prohibition against reducing measures in national climate policy. Since the Swedish travellers haven´t flown less since the tax was introduced, the tax should not be seen as an effective policy instrument and its abolition should therefore not be considered a breach of the obligations arising from the agreement. (Less) - Abstract (Swedish)
- Flygskatt har under många år varit en del av den svenska skatteaparaten. Flygskatten klassificeras som en punktskatt vilket är skatter som appliceras på ett antal produkter och tjänster som anses vara farliga för den allmänna hälsan och samhället i stort. Efter ett sammanträde i riksdagen beslutades det att flygskatten avskaffas den första juli i år (2025). Beslutet har fått blandade reakt-ioner där både glädjerop och mer bekymrade åsikter har förekommit.
Sverige är sedan många år tillbaka part till flertalet olika internationella överenskommelser som skapats i syfte att motverka de klimatförändringar som visat sig som en trend de senaste åren. Ett av de främsta avtalen av denna sort är Parisavtalet som reglerar de anslutna staternas... (More) - Flygskatt har under många år varit en del av den svenska skatteaparaten. Flygskatten klassificeras som en punktskatt vilket är skatter som appliceras på ett antal produkter och tjänster som anses vara farliga för den allmänna hälsan och samhället i stort. Efter ett sammanträde i riksdagen beslutades det att flygskatten avskaffas den första juli i år (2025). Beslutet har fått blandade reakt-ioner där både glädjerop och mer bekymrade åsikter har förekommit.
Sverige är sedan många år tillbaka part till flertalet olika internationella överenskommelser som skapats i syfte att motverka de klimatförändringar som visat sig som en trend de senaste åren. Ett av de främsta avtalen av denna sort är Parisavtalet som reglerar de anslutna staternas utsläpp av växthusgaser som anses vara den största bidragande faktorn till den globala uppvärmningen. En fråga som därmed aktualiseras i samband med att flygskatten avskaffas är huruvida de åtaganden som åligger Sverige till följd av avtalet åsidosätts till följd av beslutet. Syftet med uppsatsen är därmed att undersöka huruvida avskaffandet av flygskatten innebär ett sådant åsidosättande.
För att utreda uppsatsens frågeställningar har först en genomgång av dagens reglering av flygskatten framställts. Därefter analyseras Parisavtalets viktigaste artiklar, nämligen artikel 2 och 4, i syfte att fastställa Sveriges förpliktelser enligt avtalet. Vidare görs en tolkning av uttrycket högsta möjliga ambition som återfinns i artikel 4 med hjälp av tolkningsoperationen som presenteras i Wienkonventionen om traktaträttens 31 artikel. Resultatet av tolkningen visar att uttrycket är ett centralt begrepp i Parisavtalet som förpliktigar parterna att ta fram progressiva klimatplaner som ständigt ska förbättras och som således innefattar ett förbud mot att ta steg bakåt i den nationella klimatpolitiken. Då de svenska resenärerna inte har flugit mindre sedan flygskatten infördes bör inte skatten ses som ett effektivt styrmedel och avskaffandet bör därmed inte ses som ett åsidosättande av förpliktelserna som följer av avtalet. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9190564
- author
- Forssén, Johanna LU
- supervisor
-
- Mariya Senyk LU
- organization
- course
- LAGF03 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- folkrätt, skatterätt
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 9190564
- date added to LUP
- 2025-06-23 12:55:35
- date last changed
- 2025-06-23 12:55:35
@misc{9190564,
abstract = {{Aviation tax has for many years been a part of the Swedish tax system. The aviation tax is categorized as an excise duty, which refers to taxes applied to certain goods and services that are considered as harmful to the public health and to society as a whole. After a session in the Swedish Parliment, it was decided that the avitation tax will be abolished on the 1st of July this year (2025). The decision has received mixed reactions, including both expressions of approval and more concerned opinions.
Sweden has for a long time been a party to several different international agreements created with the purpose of counteracting the climate changes that have emerged as a trend in recent years. One of the most prominent of these agreements is the Paris Agreement which regulates the emissions of greenhouse gas by its member states, as these emissions are considered the main contributing factor to global warming. A question that comes to light because of the abolition of the aviation tax is whether the commitments that apply to Sweden as a result of the agreement are being disregarded due to the decision. The aim of the thesis is therefore to examine whether the abolition of the aviation tax entails such a disregard.
To examine the questions of the thesis, the current regulation of the aviation tax is first presented. Thereafter, the most important articles of the Paris Agre-ement, Articles 2 and 4, are analysed in order to establish Sweden´s obligations under the agreement. Furthermore, the expression highest possible am-bition, which appears in Article 4, is interpreted using the operation described in Article 31 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. The result of the interpretation shows that the expression is a central concept in the Paris Agreement that obliges the parties to create progressive climate plans that must be continuously improved, thereby including a prohibition against reducing measures in national climate policy. Since the Swedish travellers haven´t flown less since the tax was introduced, the tax should not be seen as an effective policy instrument and its abolition should therefore not be considered a breach of the obligations arising from the agreement.}},
author = {{Forssén, Johanna}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Flyger skälen för slopandet av flygskatten? En rättsvetenskaplig analys av avskaffandet av flygskatten i förhållande till Parisavtalet}},
year = {{2025}},
}