A NEW “SUSTAINABLE” TAXATION: THE CARBON (MEAT) TAX

Abstract

The latest assessment report on climate change published by the Inter Government Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), among the concretely implementable tools to avoid the increase in global temperature, includes the need for a change in eating habits towards diets with low carbon content, which lead to a greater consumption of vegetables and fruit and a substantial reduction in that of red meat. This change in diet would also help limit the negative effects associated with obesity and overweight. A transition towards a healthy and sustainable diet is therefore necessary. There are many strategies useful for this purpose. These also include taxation which can be implemented in the use of already existing fiscal instruments (reduction or increase in VAT applied on more or less healthy products) or in the introduction of new taxes, capable of making the prices of the taxed products inclusive of the negative externalities resulting on an environmental and healthy level. The opportunity - from a promotional perspective - of a taxation of this kind emerges from multiple profiles: it can, in fact, contribute to the objective through the price increase deriving from the levy (and the related dissuasive force) but also with the desirable finalization of the revenue thus received to finance accessory measures of a non-authoritative nature (investments in sustainable production, reduction of VAT on healthier foods, establishment of awareness campaigns, etc.) which, in a multi-sectoral logic, must necessarily exist.