Energy Taxation Directive

The paper examines the transition of the EU Energy Taxation Directive from a volume-based system to one based on energy content and environmental impact. It highlights how the current system favors fossil fuels and industries over households and greener alternatives. The proposed revision aims to expand the scope to aviation, shipping, and fishing, introduce taxes for hydrogen, and implement differentiated rates that penalize high-carbon fuels while favoring renewables.

• The existing Energy Taxation Directive (ETD) is based on the volume of energy products rather than their carbon or energy content, which results in fossil fuels being taxed less than electricity for heating in most Member States and petrol and diesel being taxed less than biofuels.
• The current ETD structure creates a disparity between industries and households, where energy-intensive industries benefit from reductions while prices remain higher for households, negatively impacting low-income groups.
• The proposed Fit for 55 revision shifts taxation to be based on energy content and environmental impact, which would benefit biofuels and promote green hydrogen and synthetic fuels.
• The revision introduces a tiered taxation system for heating fuels where oil and coal are taxed at the highest rate (0.9 €/GJ), while electricity and low-carbon fuels are taxed at the lowest rate (0.15 €/GJ).
• The regulatory scope of the ETD is proposed to expand to include fishing, shipping, and aviation, though the latter two apply only to intra-EU voyages and flights between Union ports and airports.

APA

Debergh, R., & Rovenec, R. (2022). Energy Taxation Directive. ClimaTalk. https://climatalk.org/2022/01/31/energy-taxation-directive/

Chicago

Debergh, Reinout, and Robin Rovenec. Energy Taxation Directive. ClimaTalk, 2022. https://climatalk.org/2022/01/31/energy-taxation-directive/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Debergh |first1=Reinout |last2=Rovenec |first2=Robin |title=Energy Taxation Directive |publisher=ClimaTalk |date=31 January 2022 |url=https://climatalk.org/2022/01/31/energy-taxation-directive/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{debergh2022energy, author = {Debergh, Reinout and Rovenec, Robin}, title = {{Energy Taxation Directive}}, institution = {ClimaTalk}, year = {2022}, month = jan, url = {https://climatalk.org/2022/01/31/energy-taxation-directive/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }