Economic Instruments For Environmental Control: Perspectives

Brazil has been facing a series of difficulties in order to introduce and to put into practice its environmental public policies. The country has rigorous and complex environmental rules. Nevertheless, the deforestation rates are still alarming. The Brazilian system of environmental agencies is comprehensive and involves the Union, states and municipalities. Nevertheless, the problems related to the air, water and soil pollution are very serious. Many environmental technicians believe that a significant part of Brazilian problems in this area are related to the governmental priority to use command- and-control instruments. They defend the stress on the economic instruments as an important strategy for achieving sustainable development and effectiveness in environmental policies. Brazil has some pioneering experiences using economic instruments for the environmental control. The country has been applying a water use payment system and other kinds of financial compensation for the use of natural resources, and it has been adopting some innovative fiscal incentives for biodiversity conservation. These experiences, however, are still at the beginning. There is a process in the Brazilian National Congress to change some relevant rules related to our taxation system. The \“Tributary Reform” is analysing, among other aspects, the green taxation. In this paper, we intend to analyse the Brazilian experiences related to the use of economic instruments for the environmental control, comparing them with similar international experiences. We intend, also, to propose some guidelines to the changes in the Brazilian taxation system.