Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Diğer Ülkelerdeki Özel Organizasyonlar Tarafından Desteklenmiş Proje, 2024 - 2025
Evidence of ecological degradation caused by human activities due to the rapid increase in the world population is felt everywhere. At the point reached today, one of humanity's biggest and most important problems is undoubtedly environmental problems, especially global warming.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reveals that the last nine years were the 9 warmest years out of 142 years due to temperature measurements made since 1880 when record-keeping began. This means that in 2022 the Earth is about 1.11 degrees Celsius warmer than the late 19th-century average (NASA, 2023).
According to NASA scientists, “The reason for the warming trend is that human activities continue to pump enormous amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and the long-term planetary impacts will also continue” (NASA, 2023). Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also reveals that greenhouse gas emissions from human activities have contributed to an average global temperature increase of 1.1°C between 1850 and 1900. Over the next 20 years, this increase is predicted to reach or exceed 1.5°C. (IPCC, 2021).
Carbon dioxide gas, which causes the temperature to increase by controlling the world's climate, comes out with the burning of fossil fuels for energy production. Recently, NASA scientists and international scientists determined that carbon dioxide emissions were the highest recorded in 2022 (NASA, 2023).
The overall greenhouse gas emissions in Türkiye rose by 7.7% in 2021 compared to the year before, according to figures from the Turkish Statistical Institute, and were estimated to total 564.4 million tons. Emissions of greenhouse gases per person increased from 4 tons in 1990 to 6.3 tons in 2020 to 6.7 tons in 2021 (TUIK, 2023). However, despite a general decline in consumption of CO2 since 1980, these numbers are still high in Germany. The consumption of greenhouse gases reached 674.75 million tons in 2021 (Ritchie and Roser, 2022).
This ominous image demonstrates that nations bear a heavy burden in the fight against environmental issues, particularly global warming. Taxes are one of the most useful tools that nations have in their fight against environmental issues. The "double dividend hypothesis" suggests that it may be possible to use the revenue generated by a tax on pollution emissions to finance reductions in other taxes elsewhere in the economy, even though it is generally agreed that the priority of environmental taxes is not a fiscal goal but rather an effective fight against environmental problems (McKitrick, 1997: 417). In this sense, it can also help achieve the goal of a more equitable tax system.
In designing their tax policies, the sole challenge that countries face is not merely to create a fair and competitive tax system while considering the fiscal and non-fiscal objectives of taxes. The fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals also limit the tax policies of nations.
It is common knowledge in modern democracies that almost all nations have a conventional or written constitution as well as governing laws. The majority of these constitutions define essential rights and freedoms as well as the parameters for their restriction. In addition to having constitutions, nations also uphold basic liberties and rights via international treaties. The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is one of the most significant international conventions used for this purpose. The Council of Europe member states signed the Rome Convention on November 4, 1950, intending to advance and defend human rights and basic freedoms (ECHR, 1950: 5).
The environmental right is under protection by the Constitution of the Republic of Türkiye. According to Article 20a of the Fundamental Law of the Federal Republic of Germany, the protection of the natural foundations of life and animals is a fundamental state objective. In 2021, the German Federal Constitutional Court ruled that Article 20a also imposes a climate protection obligation on the German legislator (Uwer and Rademacher, 2023).
Unfortunately, the ECHR does not yet contain the right to the environment. Because of this, the environmental right in individual petitions brought with claims of infringement of the right to the environment cannot be directly examined by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Turkey or the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). As a result, courts take into account this right in conjunction with other rights. The absence of environmental right in the ECHR creates a limitation before the Constitutional Court and the ECtHR. This limitation carries environmental taxes more legitimate basis to protect the environmental right.
Countries are currently applying various environmental taxes to protect the environment. Environmental protection was a top popular issue and policy goal in Germany in the past (OECD, 2001: 1). Still, Germany has aggressive climate goals with the intention of becoming carbon neutral by 2045 and achieving zero emissions by 2050 (OECD, 2023). Germany promised to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 65% by 2030 (relative to 1990 levels) and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 when it amended its Climate Action Act in 2021 (Federal Ministry of Finance, 2022).
Germany is effectively using taxes to improve environmental protection, as seen by its incentives for low-emission vehicles, the direct connection between the motor vehicle tax and the vehicle's carbon emissions, and the introduction of a per-ton pricing of carbon emissions beginning in 2021 (Federal Ministry of Finance, 2022).
In Türkiye, on the other hand, although there is no direct carbon tax application in the field of carbon tax, it ranks first among OECD countries in terms of the tax rate applied indirectly to petroleum (Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, 2018).
The European Commission, which aims to reduce carbon emissions by 55% by 2030 and to zero it completely by 2050, draws attention to the fact that climate change is a global problem that requires global solutions. For this reason, the European Commission has introduced the Carbon Limit Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to combat 'carbon leakage' (European Commission, n.d.).
CBAM, which will take effect on October 1, 2023, is advantageous for safeguarding environmental rights and effectively addressing global warming, but it also raises some issues. It is thought that this process may have an impact on national economies and result in disadvantages for emerging and southern nations that lack the resources to maintain stable climate policies on the global market (Ergün, 2023).
When looking at the situation from the perspective of Türkiye, it is crucial to note that EU-27 Countries and Germany from these countries are the states that Türkiye exports the most goods (Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Trade, 2023: 2). Turkish businesses exporting to the EU will be required to pay the carbon tax that the EU would impose if there is no carbon pricing in Türkiye.
This project is important in that it focuses on one of the most important problems facing countries. The fact that the step taken by the European Commission to solve this problem will come into force very soon makes it even more important to discuss its positive and negative effects comprehensively. Although there are studies discussing the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, this project differs from others in that it focuses on Türkiye and Germany, which are in close commercial relationships with each other. Another aspect that distinguishes the project from other works is that the subject is discussed not only in terms of financial and economic aspects but also in terms of environmental right and property rights as fundamental rights and freedoms.