Environmental Taxation as a Solution to Global Warming: Comparative Analysis of the "Greening" of Energy Taxation and the Adoption of a New Tax

ABSTRACT

Currently, Japan is seeking practical measures toward meeting its stringent obligations to reduce its greenhouse gases, as laid down in the international framework of the Kyoto Protocol. The environment tax has been discussed for the past ten years as a means to address this issue, but concrete steps toward its adoption have just begun to be taken. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), reviewing its energy special-accounts, has adopted a coal and oil tax as of April 2003, a tax that includes hitherto unaccounted for coal consumption, and has even made an allotment for global warming measures in its annual expenditures. Meanwhile, the Ministry of the Environment (MOE), as of the present time (November 2003), has proposed concrete plans for a new carbon tax, and has begun to poll public opinion on this measure.