EU’s Household Carbon Tax: Effective Format
The European Parliament has adopted several important Green Deal texts to accelerate the reduction of our greenhouse gas emissions. Among the measures announced for 2026, the extension of carbon emission quotas to households through road transport and domestic heating. Théo Verdier, co-director of the Foundation’s Europe Observatory, deciphers the issues around this new form of carbon tax.
Four years after the “yellow vests”, a movement of anger born of a so-called green taxation of fuel, France can see the implementation of the device with a cautious eye. Especially in times of high inflation. The French left-wing deputies thus mostly abstained or voted against the text, breaking for the ecologists and socialists with the positioning of the rest of their political groups.
Direct funding of social measures
The European system is part of a global reform movement aimed at increasing the price of carbon on a European scale. And this, while respecting a certain fairness vis-à-vis the various economic actors. A key fact when we know that the perceived fairness of the transition measures fully contributes to their acceptance1. Thus, the European Parliament has given its agreement to the implementation of the carbon border adjustment mechanism, making it possible to align the climate requirements weighing on European companies with raw materials and then with manufactured goods imported into the Union. Free emission allowances or pollution permits for air transport are also being phased out or reduced.
The revenue generated by the extension of the carbon market is allocated to a new social climate fund. Estimated at a maximum of 86 billion euros, this mechanism is intended to cushion price increases on household fuel and heating bills. Will this amount be enough? How will it be distributed? These questions are in the hands of the twenty-seven Member States who will be responsible for distributing it. However, from its conception, the project offers a cushion to cushion the financial shock of its implementation. In addition, it benefits from an internal consistency that differentiates it from the French carbon tax of 2018. The latter had the defect of directly feeding the State budget without displaying a direct link between its collection and the financing of the transition. ecological.
The long march of European policies
However, the European measures pose a question of visibility and timing to be fully understood and accepted. France has a problem with information on European Union news. Only 3% of the airtime of the main television news and radio stations deal with the subject2. And the vote of the European Parliament was no exception. For example, neither the TF1 news nor that of France 2 mentioned the subject on D-Day. It is therefore likely that this long-term policy, with a decision taken in 2023 for new long-term charges term on companies and households, is not put on the agenda of the French public debate. And it will be difficult to amend or postpone their implementation when they gradually come into force between 2026 and 2034.
As on many European subjects, the French will learn and debate a European public policy under the impression that it is already completely locked in. Even though France contributed to its adoption to varying degrees via its representatives in the European Council, in the Council of the EU – where the ministers are represented – and in the European Parliament. We can cite many similar cases in the last twenty years, such as the privatization of rail, restrictions on the use of pesticides or, on a very concrete subject, the establishment of a technical control on two-wheelers motorized.
This article is originally published on jean-jaures.org
