A taxing environment: evaluating the multiple objectives of environmental taxes
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 21, 2026

Spatial Multiobjective Optimization of Agricultural Conservation Practices using a SWAT Model and an Evolutionary Algorithm
Published on: December 9, 2012
Marie Lynn Miranda1, Brack W Hale
1Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University, Box 90328, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA. mmiranda@duke.edu
Abstract:
Environmental taxes have attracted attention in recent years as a tool to internalize environmental externalities. This paper evaluates Sweden's experience with environmental taxes in the energy sector by examining how environmental taxes compare with estimated environmental externalities associated with the use of oil, coal, natural gas, and forest residue fuels. We also analyze how environmental taxes influence fuel choices in the energy sector by comparing the production, environmental, and tax costs for the same fuels. We find that (i) the Swedish environmental taxes correspond imperfectly with environmental costs; (ii) the Swedish tax and subsidy system introduces changes in fuel choice decisions; (iii) the energy users are responding to the incentives created by the tax and subsidy systems in ways that are consistent with economic theory; and (iv) the Swedish experience with environmental taxes and subsidies bears directly on wider evaluations of energy policy approaches internationally.
Related Concept Videos
Trophic Efficiency
Energy Budgets and Reproductive Strategies
Social Traps
Environmental Applications of Microorganisms
Methods to Assess Microbial Communities
Microenvironments

