Tax Profiles of ‘Renewable Energy Sources’: From the ‘European Green Deal’ to Fiscal Incentives for an Ecological Energy Transition. What Perspectives?

In view of the objectives of environmental sustainability and climate neutrality, advocated by the Paris Agreement and the ‘European green deal’, energy taxation represents a fundamental tool for the gradual replacement of renewable ecological sources to traditional fossil fuels, also in order to achieve cost savings and rethink energy supply models in a promotional dimension of the tax authorities, to progressively reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the use of renewable and environmentally friendly energy sources. The strategy - adopted within the EU with the ‘Clean energy package’ (set of measures consisting of four regulations and four directives approved between 2018 and 2019) and implemented by the domestic laws of the Member States - intends to transform the economic system according to a circular, efficient, competitive, sustainable and inclusive paradigm, through the implementation of clean technologies, favored by the provision of incentive fiscal policies, in order to promote, in the long term, the production of completely decarbonised energy with a consequent zero climate impact. As part of the program called ‘Fit for 55’, the European Commission has presented a series of proposals aimed at achieving the objectives expressed by the European Green Deal, consisting of a 55% reduction in net carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 (compared to at previous levels) and energy neutrality to be achieved by 2050 through a series of regulatory interventions aimed at modifying or revising the European framework for the taxation of energy products. According to the objectives, the Directives on energy efficiency and renewable sources, those on the emissions trading system, on transport, as well as on the creation of a new EU own resource, called the ‘Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism’ (CBAM). The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an ambitious action program for people, planet and prosperity, signed in September 2015, also deals with issues relating to the energy sector, setting 17 objectives and 169 targets that address the dynamics of sustainable development in an economic, social and environmental dimension. In this context, the theme of energy is divided into multiple objectives, the common feature of which is the need to increase the diffusion of clean energy to counteract environmental degradation and reduce the risk of catastrophic events: objective number 7 intends to ensure access for all to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy systems to significantly increase the share of renewable energies by 2030 and double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency. Almost simultaneously with the preparation of the 2030 Agenda, with the Communication entitled ‘A framework strategy for a resilient Energy Union, accompanied by a forward-looking climate change policy’ COM (2015) 80 final, which can be considered the a prodromal act to the adoption of the ‘climate package’, in relation to the energy policies adopted within the EU, concerns were expressed deriving from the fact that the Union still imports too high a percentage of its energy needs and highlighted the role that they could have played individual citizens in the energy transition process. The reflection, taking its cue from the measures developed at EU and domestic level, focuses attention on the tools, mechanisms and tax incentives aimed at operating the energy transition in an ecological key, also from a de iure condendo perspective.