Gynnar eller motverkar kommunerna kostnadseffektiv miljöstyrning
en studie av kommunala taxor och avgifter
Local charges may induce people to change their pattern of consumption by influencing investments and acts in certain directions. Some charges could for example give people incentives to use less natural resources. This study investigates four different local charges and whether they benefit an economical management with natural resources or not. This is carried out by investigating whether there is a polarity between local charges that may influence environmental actions or goods, and effective pollution control set to achieve certain nationally determined environmental goals.
The study includes two economic perspectives and investigates on the one hand whether local charges counteract governmental subsidies and on the other hand whether the charges vary between the different municipalities since large differences may lead to cost inefficiency. The investigation includes three Swedish municipalities.
The result is ambiguous. For charges on environmental goods such as solar collectors and heat pumps, a counteraction exists between subsidies and local charges but the level of the problem varies substantially. The charge for a heat pump may differ from 0,3 percent to almost 20 percent of the received subsidy. When it comes to solar collectors the interpretation of whether building permit at all is needed for solar collectors fundamentally differs and in this study two out of three municipalities do not require a permit and hence not a charge.
When it comes to differences in charges between municipalities, varieties also exist to different extents. Differences in charges for installation of solar collectors indicate inefficiency at the national scale but further investigation is needed to understand how severe this problem is. Waste and water charges do affect the use of the resource but in the case of the water charge this effect is insignificant and the differences between the municipalities are sometimes substantial. The future will show whether the new law, introduced in 2007, will influence this fact or not.