Abstract
Several governance regulations have been adopted in European countries to promote environmental sustainability, such as environmental taxation and environmental disclosures in financial reports. In this context, this paper examines the linkage between environmental taxation, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and environmental sustainability in European countries from 1994 to 2018. Unlike earlier empirical studies, the present work is the first to assess the impact of environmental taxation and IFRS adoption on consumption-based carbon emissions. In order to yield valid and reliable outcomes, the modern econometric method that is vigorous to cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity was employed. Likewise, the study uses the novel method of moment quantile regressions (MMQR). The MMQR outcomes illustrated that environmental taxation significantly negatively affects consumption-based emissions in European countries, indicating that environmental taxation has a positive effect on the ecological sustainability. Besides, the findings show that IFRS negatively affects consumption-based emissions, while economic growth positively affects the level of consumption-based emissions. Therefore, European governments must use fiscal and financial policies to mitigate ecological pollution. Moreover, more environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure in European industries could also help promote environmental sustainability in European countries.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adebayo TS, Samour A (2024) Renewable energy, fiscal policy and load capacity factor in BRICS countries: novel findings from panel non-linear ARDL model. Environ Dev Sustain 26(2):4365–4389
Adebayo TS, Samour A, Alola AA, Abbas S, Ağa M (2023) The potency of natural resources and trade globalisation in the ecological sustainability target for the BRICS economies. Heliyon 9(5)
Afshan S, Ozturk I, Yaqoob T (2022) Facilitating renewable energy transition, ecological innovations and stringent environmental policies to improve ecological sustainability: evidence from MM-QR method. Renew Energy 196:151–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2022.06.125
Ahmad M, Khan Z, Rahman ZU, Khattak SI, Khan ZU (2021) Can innovation shocks determine CO2 emissions (CO2e) in the OECD economies? A new perspective. Econ Innov New Technol 30(1):89–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/10438599.2019.1684643
Al Shammre AS, Benhamed A, Ben-Salha O, Jaidi Z (2023) Do environmental taxes affect carbon dioxide emissions in OECD countries? Evidence from the dynamic panel threshold model. Systems 11:307. https://doi.org/10.3390/systems11060307
Alandejani M, Al-Shaer H (2023) Macro uncertainty impacts on ESG performance and carbon emission reduction targets. Sustainability 15(5):4249
Ali M, Joof F, Samour A, Tursoy T, Balsalobre-Lorente D, Radulescu M (2023) Testing the impacts of renewable energy, natural resources rent, and technological innovation on the ecological footprint in the USA: evidence from Bootstrapping ARDL. Resour Policy 86:104139
Amri F (2017) Intercourse across economic growth, trade and renewable energy consumption in developing and developed countries. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 69:527–534
Amri F (2018) Carbon dioxide emissions, total factor productivity, ICT, trade, financial development, and energy consumption: testing environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for Tunisia. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25:33691–33701
Amri F, Zaied YB, Lahouel BB (2019) ICT, total factor productivity, and carbon dioxide emissions in Tunisia. Technol Forecast Soc Chang 146:212–217
Ansari MA, Haider S, Khan NA (2020) Environmental Kuznets curve revisited: an analysis using ecological and material footprint. Ecol Ind 115:106416
Anwar A, Siddique M, Dogan E, Sharif A (2021) The moderating role of renewable and non-renewable energy in environment-income nexus for ASEAN countries: evidence from method of moments quantile regression. Renew Energy 164:956–967. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2020.09.128
Aoyama N, Silva ECD (2020) Abatement innovation in a Cournot oligopoly: emission versus output tax incentives. Jpn Econ Rev 6:1–26
Babatunde DE, Babatunde OM, Akinbulire TO, Oluseyi PO (2018) Hybrid energy systems model with the inclusion of energy efficiency measures: A rural application perspective. Int J Energy Econ Policy 8(4):310–323
Baratta A, Cimino A, Longo F, Solina V, Verteramo S (2023) The impact of ESG practices in industry with a focus on carbon emissions: insights and future perspectives. Sustainability 15(8):6685
Barbu EM, Ionescu-Feleagă L, Ferrat Y (2022a) The evolution of environmental reporting in Europe: the role of financial and non-financial regulation. Int J Account 57(02):2250008
Barbu EM, Ionescu-Feleagă L, Ferrat Y (2022b) Financial and non-financial tools useful for exhaustive corporate environmental disclosure and practices. Int J Acc 57(02):2250009
Barker T, Kram T, Oberthür S, Voogt M (2001) The role of EU internal policies in implementing greenhouse gas mitigation options to achieve Kyoto targets. International Environmental Agreements 1:243–265
Bashir MF, Ma B, Shahbaz M, Jiao Z (2020) The nexus between environmental tax and carbon emissions with the roles of environmental technology and financial development. PLoS One 15(11):e0242412. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0242412
Bento JPC, Moutinho V (2016) CO2 emissions, non-renewable and renewable electricity production, economic growth, and international trade in Italy. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 55:142–155
Binder M, Coad A (2011) From average Joes happiness to miserable Jane and cheerful John: using quantile regressions to analyze the full subjective well-being distribution. J Econ Behav Organ 79:275–290. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2011.02.005
Breyer C, Bogdanov D, Gulagi A, Aghahosseini A, Barbosa LS, Koskinen O, Vainikka P (2017) On the role of solar photovoltaics in global energy transition scenarios. Prog Photovolt: Res Appl 25(8):727–745
Chen M, Jiandong W, Saleem H (2022) The role of environmental taxes and stringent environmental policies in attaining the environmental quality: Evidence from OECD and non OECD countries. Front Environ Sci 10:972354. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2022.972354
Clough S (2016) Achieving CO2 reductions in Colombia: effects of carbon taxes and abatement targets. Energy Econ 56:575–586
Cole MA, Rayner AJ, Bates JM (1997) The environmental Kuznets curve: an empirical analysis. Environ Dev Econ 2(4):401–416
Danish, Baloch MA (2017) Dynamic linkages between road transport energy consumption, economic growth, and environmental quality: evidence from Pakistan. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25:1–12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-1072-1
Dogan E, Ulucak R, Kocak E, Isik C (2020) The use of ecological footprint in estimating the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for BRICST by considering cross-section dependence and heterogeneity. Sci Total Environ 723:138063
Doğan B, Chu LK, Ghosh S, Truong HHD, Balsalobre-Lorente D (2022) How environmental taxes and carbon emissions are related in the G7 economies? Renew Energy 187:645–656
Dumitrescu EI, Hurlin C (2012) Testing for Granger non-causality in heterogeneous panels. Econ Model 29(4):1450–1460
Ebaidalla EM (2023) Impact of indirect taxes on CO2 emissions in the presence of institutional quality: evidence from a global panel data analysis. Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal
Faccioli M, Law C, Caine CA et al (2022) Combined carbon and health taxes outperform single-purpose information or fiscal measures in designing sustainable food policies. Nat Food 3:331–340. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00482-2
Ganda F, Garidzirai R (2020) The environmental influence of tax regimes in selected European Union Economies. In (Ed.), Green Computing Technologies and Computing Industry in 2021. IntechOpen. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94552
Ghaith AF, Epplin FM (2017a) Consequences of a carbon tax on household electricity use and cost, carbon emissions, and economics of household solar and wind. Energy Econ 67:159–168
Ghaith AF, Epplin FM (2017b) Consequences of a carbon tax on household electricity use and cost, carbon emissions, and economics of household solar and wind. Energy Econ 67:159–168
Gyamfi BA, Adebayo TS, Bekun FV, Agboola MO (2022) Sterling insights into natural resources intensification, ageing population and globalization on environmental status in Mediterranean countries. Energy Environ. https://doi.org/10.1177/0958305X221083240
Jahanger A, Ali M, Balsalobre-Lorente D, Samour A, Joof F, Tursoy T (2023a) Testing the impact of renewable energy and oil price on carbon emission intensity in China’s transportation sector. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30(34):82372–82386
Jahanger A, Balsalobre-Lorente D, Ali M, Samour A, Abbas S, Tursoy T, Joof F (2023b) Going away or going green in ASEAN countries: testing the impact of green financing and energy on environmental sustainability. Energy Environ. https://doi.org/10.1177/0958305X231171346
Jiang Z, Shao S (2014) Distributional effects of a carbon tax on Chinese households: A case of Shanghai. Energy Policy 73:269–277
Jin C, Shahzad M, Zafar U, Suki NM (2022) Socio-economic and environmental drivers of green innovation: evidence from non-linear ARDL. Econ Res-Ekonomska Istraživanja 35(1):5336–5356. https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677X.2022.2026241
Kao C, Chiang MH (2001) On the estimation and inference of a cointegrated regression in panel data. In: Nonstationary panels, panel cointegration, and dynamic panels. Emerald Group Publishing Limited pp 179–222
Kateb I, Belgacem I (2023) Navigating governance and accounting reforms in Saudi Arabia's emerging market: impact of audit quality, board characteristics, and IFRS adoption on financial performance. Int J Discl Gov pp 1–23
Koenker R, Bassett G (1978) Regression quantiles. Econometrica 46:33. https://doi.org/10.2307/1913643
Kong C, Zhang J, Ntarmah AH, Kong Y, Zhao H (2022) Carbon neutrality in the Middle East and North Africa: the roles of renewable energy, economic growth, and government effectiveness. Int J Environ Res Public Health 19:10676. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191710676
Köppl A, Schratzenstaller M (2023) Carbon taxation: A review of the empirical literature. J Econ Surv 37(4):1353–1388
Li C, Lin T, Chen Y, Yan Y, Xu Z (2022) Nonlinear impacts of renewable energy consumption on economic growth and environmental pollution across China. Journal of Cleaner production. 368:133183.
Li S, Samour A, Irfan M, Ali M (2023) Role of renewable energy and fiscal policy on trade adjusted carbon emissions: evaluating the role of environmental policy stringency. Renew Energy 205:156–165
Lin B, Li X (2011) (2011) The effect of carbon tax on per capita CO2 emissions. Energy Policy 39(9):5137–5146
Liobikienė G, Butkus M, Matuzevičiūtė K (2018) Environmental Kuznets curve of greenhouse gas emissions including technological progress and substitution effects. J Energy 135:237–248
Liobikiene G, Butkus M, Matuzevičiūtė K (2019) The contribution of energy taxes to climate change policy in the European Union (EU). Resources 8:63
Lomborg B (2020) Welfare in the 21st century: Increasing development, reducing inequality, the impact of climate change, and the cost of climate policies. Technol Forecast Soc Chang 156:119981
Luigi I, Thorsten M, Julien S (2021) Corporate taxation and carbon emissions. Retrieved on 18/11/22 from https://ssrn.com/abstract=3880057 or https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3880057
Machado JAF, Silva JMCS (2019) Quantiles via moments. J Econ 213:145–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2019.04.009
Manganaris P, Spathis C, Dasilas A (2015) The effects of mandatory IFRS adoption and conditional conservatism on European bank values. J Int Account Audit Tax 24:72–81
Maris G, Flouros F (2021) The green deal, national energy and climate plans in Europe: member states’ compliance and strategies. Adm Sci 11:75
McDougall RA (2021) Energy taxes and greenhouse gas emissions in Australia. Working Paper. 1993. Available online: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/266366/. Accessed on 15 December 2021
Mehta D, Prajapati P (2024) Asymmetric effect of environment tax and spending on CO2 emissions of European Union. Environ Sci Pollut Res. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-32990-y
Meng S, Siriwardana M, McNeill J (2013) The environmental and economic impact of the carbon tax in Australia. Environ Resour Econ 54(3):313–332
Metcalf GE (2019) Paying for pollution: why a carbon tax is good for America. Oxford University Press, New York. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190694197.001.0001
Micekiene A, Ciuleviciene V, Rauluskeviene J, Streimikiene D (2018) Assessment of the effect of environmental taxes on environmental protection. Ekonomický časopis 66:286–308
Miller S, Vela M (2013) Are environmentally related taxes effective?
Murshed M, Nurmakhanova M, Al-Tal R, Mahmood H, Elheddad M, Ahmed R (2022) Can intra-regional trade, renewable energy use, foreign direct investments, and economic growth mitigate ecological footprints in South Asia? Energy Sources, Part B: Econo Plan Policy. https://doi.org/10.1080/15567249.2022.2038730
Nerudová D, Hampel H, Janová J, Dobranschi J, Rozmahel P (2019) Tax system sustainability evaluation: a model for EU countries. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10272-019-0811-6
Nong D, Siriwardana M, Perera S, Nguyen DB (2019) Growth of low emission-intensive energy production and energy impacts in Vietnam under the new regulation. J Clean Prod 225:90–103
Othman J (2017) Carbon and energy taxation for CO2 mitigation: a CGE model of the Malaysia. Environ Dev Sustain 19:239–262
Pata UK, Samour A (2023) Assessing the role of the insurance market and renewable energy in the load capacity factor of OECD countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30(16):48604–48616
Pesaran MH, Yamaga T (2008) Testing slope homogeneity in large panels. J Econ 142:50–93
Pesaran MH (2007) A simple panel unit root test in the presence of cross‐section dependence. J Appl Econom 22(2):265–312
Pesaran MH (2015) Testing weak cross-sectional dependence in large panels. Economet Rev 34(6–10):1089–1117. https://doi.org/10.1080/07474938.2014.956623
Ptak M, Neneman J, Roszkowska S (2024) The impact of petrol and diesel oil taxes in EU member states on CO2 emissions from passenger cars. Sci Rep 14:52. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-50456-y
Qureshi MA, Waseem N, Qureshi JA, Afshan S (2018) Impact of organizational commitment on readiness for change: a case of higher learning institutions of karachi. JISR Manag Soc Sci Econ 16:1–14. https://doi.org/10.31384/jisrmsse/2018.16.1.1
Radmehr R, Shayanmehr S, Baba EA, Samour A, Adebayo TS (2023) Spatial spillover effects of green technology innovation and renewable energy on ecological sustainability: New evidence and analysis. Sustain Dev
Radulescu M, Sinisi CI, Popescu C, Iacob SE, Popescu L (2017) Environmental tax policy in Romania in the context of the EU: double dividend theory. Sustainability 9:1986
Samour A, Adebayo TS, Agyekum EB, Khan B, Kamel S (2023a) Insights from BRICS-T economies on the impact of human capital and renewable electricity consumption on environmental quality. Sci Rep 13(1):5245
Samour A, Joof F, Ali M, Tursoy T (2023b) Do financial development and renewable energy shocks matter for environmental quality: evidence from top 10 emitting emissions countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30(32):78879–78890
Samour A, Mehmood U, Radulescu M, Budu RA, Nitu RM (2023c) Examining the role of renewable energy, technological innovation, and the insurance market in environmental sustainability in the United States: a step toward COP26 targets. Energies 16(17):6138
Shafiei S, Salim RA (2014) Non-renewable and renewable energy consumption and CO2 emissions in OECD countries: a comparative analysis. Energy policy. 66:5471–556
Sharif A, Afshan S, Khan BS (2018) Does democracy embolden economic growth in pakistan? Evidence from ARDL bound testing and rolling window analysis. Int J Econ Bus Res 15:180. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijebr.2018.089684
Shmelev SE, Speck SU (2018) Green fiscal reform in Sweden: econometric assessment of the carbon and energy taxation scheme. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 90:969–981
Streimikiene D, Siksnelyte I, Zavadskas EK, Cavallaro F (2018) The impact of greening tax systems on sustainable energy development in the Baltic States. Sustainability 11:1–29
Sundar S, Mishra AK, Naresh R (2016) Effect of environmental tax on carbon dioxide emission: a mathematical model. Am J Appl Math Stat 4(1):16–2
Swamy PA (1970) Efficient inference in a random coefficient regression model. Econometrica 38(2):311–323. https://doi.org/10.2307/1913012
Tamura H, Nakanishi R, Hatono I, Umano M (1996) Is environmental tax effective for total emission control of carbon dioxide? Systems analysis of an environmental economic model. IFAC Proc Vol 29(1):5435–5440
Vera S, Sauma E (2015) Does a carbon tax make sense in countries with still a high potential for energy efficiency? Comparison between the reducing-emissions effects of carbon tax and energy efficiency measures in the Chilean case. Energy 88:478–488
Weerathunga PR, Xiaofang C, Nurunnabi M, Kulathunga KMMCB, Swarnapali RMNC (2020) Do the IFRS promote corporate social responsibility reporting? Evidence from IFRS convergence in India. J Int Account Audit Tax 40:100336
Westerlund J (2007) Testing for error correction in panel data. Oxf Bull Econ Stat 69:709–748
Wolde-Rufael Y, Mulat-Weldemeskel E (2022) The moderating role of environmental tax and renewable energy in CO2 emissions in Latin America and Caribbean countries: evidence from method of moments quantile regression. Environ Challenges 6:100412
Yahaya A, Nor NM, Habibullah MS, Ghani JA, Noor ZM (2016) How relevant is environmental quality to per capita health expenditures? Empirical evidence from panel of developing countries”. Springerplus 5(1):1–14
Youssef AM, Abdel-Aziz MS, El-Sayed SM (2014) Chitosan nanocomposite films based on Ag-NP and Au-NP biosynthesis by Bacillus Subtilis as packaging materials. Int J Biol Macromol 69:185–191
Zhao A, Song X, Li J, Yuan Q, Pei Y, Li R, Hitch M (2023a) Effects of carbon tax on urban carbon emission reduction: evidence in China environmental governance. Int J Environ Res Public Health 20(3):2289. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032289
Zhao L-T, He L-Y, Cheng L, Zeng G-R, Huang Z (2018) The effect of gasoline consumption tax on consumption and carbon emissions during a period of low oil prices. J Clean Prod 171:1429–1436
Zhao WX, Samour A, Yi K, Al-Faryan MAS (2023b) Do technological innovation, natural resources and stock market development promote environmental sustainability? Novel evidence based on the load capacity factor. Resour Policy 82:103397
Zheng F, Zhou X, Rahat B, Rubbaniy G (2021) Carbon neutrality target for leading exporting countries: on the role of economic complexity index and renewable energy electricity. J Environ Manag 299:113558
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
AS and MM: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, writing original draft; SM, FA: data curation, writing original draft, writing—review and editing, investigation.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethical approval
This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.
Consent to participate
Not applicable.
Consent for publication
All authors have given explicit consent to submit and publish.
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Roula Inglesi-Lotz
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Samour, A., Musah, M., Mati, S. et al. Testing the impact of environmental taxation and IFRS adoption on consumption‐based carbon in European countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 34896–34909 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-33481-w
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-33481-w