Environmental Taxes: A Practical Approach to Financing Municipalities

Green Economy and enforcing environmental taxes are among the modern instruments used in the process of economic activities following the norms of sustainable development. In effect, the issue of green economy includes all economic activities which not only prevent the damage to the environment but also help preserve it. The role the green tax plays is making a balance in the social security payments to compensate for the damage inflicted to the society. Metropolises and their municipalities, via such modern policy, may change their cities to a green one and through collecting such taxes make the sustainable development possible. This study, which is a practical one, utilizing the literature on the related research and the information collected from library research and the data about the green economy, concludes that the economy of the environment, as an interdisciplinary study, may help better understanding of the preservation of the form and the ecology of environment and through the interaction between urban economics and the economy of the environment, the path towards a sustainable development would get even shorter. Therefore, the research methodology applied in this study is descriptive analysis. Green economy and collecting environmental taxes take a political approach which result in the cooperation and interaction between urban economics and the natural ecosystems which are exploited by them. The main issue, in fact, is to reduce concerns about the effects of the negative growth of the economy on environment which is achieved by positive effects on the issues related to the green economy. This view is a borderline between natural and economic systems which have mutual effects on one another so that a sustainable development could be actualized. Hence, green economy is an interdisciplinary science and encompasses a wide society of different sciences which are related to economy and the environment. The results of this study probes into the necessity of the introduction of green economy to urban economics and also the necessity of the application of environmental taxes. The study also offers methods so that such financial sources in the municipalities of the country and especially in the metropolis of Tehran could be used in a targeted way.