Varying toll prices based on vehicle emissions or delinking urban waste management costs from the water bill are OECD suggestions for Portugal to improve its environmental performance.
The suggestions are part of the fourth review of Portugal’s environmental performance published today by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in which the 38-country organization analyzes the country’s environmental performance over the past decade and 26 years ago. recommendations.
To improve this performance, it is necessary to “transfer the investment from the construction of new roads to the improvement of the rail network”.
And Portugal, the organization suggests, should consider introducing taxes based on the number and type of animals and the use of fertilizers, and diverting public support away from emissions-intensive activities in the agricultural sector.
It is necessary, reinforces the OECD document, to increase water withdrawal rates for agriculture, strengthen the monitoring of withdrawals and limit new licenses in certain regions, and “accelerate the transfer of urban waste management costs to families through specific identifiable charges”. , unrelated to the water bill”.
Portugal must also complete the evaluation of the green tax reform, “with a view to a more coherent application of the polluter pays principle”, closing the tax gap between diesel and gasoline, promoting less polluting vehicles, varying toll prices “depending on vehicle emissions” and develop low emission zones in cities.
Quickly implement the Climate Framework Law is another of the OECD recommendations, which also calls for “clear targets” to eliminate all fossil fuel subsidies by 2030.
It is necessary, says the document, to continue supporting the acquisition of vehicles with low carbon emissions and accelerate the implementation of charging stations throughout the country.
Source: TSF
