Natural resource tax as an instrument for sustainable environmental governance

To contribute to a more efficient use of resources and the transition to a circular economy by reducing the amount of landfill waste, environmental tax policies need to be well thought out. The research aims to assess the use of environmental taxes for fostering the circular economy. All EU Member States use taxes to solve environmental governance problems; however, the tax revenues as a percentage of GDP tend to decrease, which indicates that GDP growth outpaces an increase in taxes. Environmental taxes mainly consist of energy and transport taxes, while the proportion of pollution and resource taxes is relatively lower. To achieve environmental governance goals, both tax collection and tax relief are simultaneously used to contribute to waste and packaging management and reduce environmental impacts. Increasing tax rates alone is not enough to reduce the amount of landfill waste, and more attention should be paid to educating the population and increasing the role of local governments in sustainable environmental governance.