Sugar taxation for climate and sustainability goals

• Published in: Nature sustainability 2022-10, Vol.5 (10), p.899-905
• Main Authors: King, Lewis C., van den Bergh, Jeroen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 704/844/682; 704/844/685; 704/844/843; Agricultural land; Analysis; Biofuels; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Earth and Environmental Science; Economic crisis; Economics; Environment; Environmental impact; Ethanol; Pandemics; Sugar crops; Sugarcane; Sustainability; Sustainable Development; Taxation
• ISSN: 2398-9629; 2398-9629
• DOI: 10.1038/s41893-022-00934-4

Meeting environmental sustainability goals while simultaneously recovering from the health and economic crises arising from the coronavirus pandemic requires creative policy solutions. Sugar taxation presents one such policy as sugar crops are arguably the least efficient to consume from a health perspective but the most efficient for biofuel production. Here we analyse the sustainability co-benefits of reducing sugar consumption through redirecting existing sugar cropland to alternative uses. Emissions could fall 20.9–54.3 Mt CO 2 e yr −1 if the EU were to reduce its sugar consumption in line with health guidelines and the excess Brazilian sugar cane redirected to ethanol. These savings would be around four times higher than an alternative strategy of afforesting existing EU sugar beet cropland and double those from producing sugar beet ethanol in the European Union. Achieving this through policies aimed at behavioural change, with a serious role for sugar taxation, would not only reduce the environmental impacts of biofuels but also provide health and economic benefits. Recovering from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic while achieving environmental goals requires creative policy measures. This study analyses the sustainability co-benefits of reducing sugar consumption through redirecting existing sugar cropland to alternative uses via sugar taxation.