| Abstract [eng] |
60 pages, 3 pictures, 13 tables, 71 references Climate change and its negative consequences for nature and society is one of the main problems nowadays. Extreme weather conditions caused by global warming, such as floods, droughts or heat waves are already having a negative impact on the economy ant the quality of life. If no actions is taken now, these effects will only be stronger and more difficult to repair in the future. For this reason, various instruments are being taken to try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which are the main drivers of climate change. However, there are some opinions that the application of these instruments may harm economic performance. The main purpose of this master thesis is to identify possible decarbonization instruments and to evaluate the influence of one of the decarbonization instrument – carbon tax impact on economic indicators in the Baltic States. The work consists of three main parts: scientific literature review, research methodology and results review. Conclusions and recommendations are also presented. The literature review the concept of decarbonization and its importance and discusses the trends of greenhouse gas emissions. The literature review also analyze possible decarbonization instruments and their advantages and disadvantages in order to achieve decarbonization goals. Finally, the literature review also reviews the potential impact of decarbonization instruments on selected economic indicators: economic growth, inflation, income inequality and employment level. The methodological part of the work presents the methods usually used in this type of research and describes master thesis research methodology of the impact of carbon tax on the economic indicators in the Baltic States. The data used in the research and the hypotheses are also presented. The main finding of the master thesis research is that the application of carbon tax does not have a statistically significant effect on the economic growth, inflation, income inequality and employment level in the Baltic States. However, the obtained results could have been influenced by extremely low carbon tax rates in the Baltic States. For this reason, carbon tax rates should be increased in order to achieve decarbonization goals. |
