1. Summary
With this work the author intends to make known the various environmental problems existing in Cuba.
For this, a proposal is made to use economic instruments to control externalities, given that the few used in the country are designed only to combat the use of natural resources.
The implementation of an environmental tax is proposed to mitigate the effects of pollution derived from oil activity, given that the industry that exploits this energy source resource is one of the most polluting in the country.
Summary
With the present work the author seeks to give to know the diverse existent environmental problems in Cuba.
For such a proposal is elaborated of using economic instruments in the externalities control, seen that the few ones used in the country are only conceived to combat the use of the natural resources.
He / she intends the implementation of an environmental tax to mitigate the effects of the derived contamination of the oil activity seen that the industry of exploitation of this resource energy source is one of the most polluting of the country.
2. Major environmental problems in the world
The main environmental problems of the world are constituted by factors existing in nature and that surround us such as the soil, water, air and the living organisms that inhabit it.
Rivers, lakes and seas, for a long time, collect waste or garbage produced by humans and transport them thousands of km, this makes the water problem one of the most acute that humanity faces. Among the main problems of water pollution we can highlight the problems of wastewater produced in homes, water of industrial origin and water of agricultural origin.
One of the main problems of air pollution is the destruction of the ozone layer, whose mission is to absorb ultraviolet rays from the sun, which are very harmful to human health, it also causes alterations in the photosynthesis of plants and a great climate change. The main air pollution problems are climate change, the greenhouse effect, acid rain and holes in the ozone layer.
Soils are affected by pollution due to fires, desertification and massive felling of trees, the use of toxic pollutants such as: pesticides, toxic metals and organic compounds that are harmful to men's health.
Another aspect to consider in soil contamination is the impact that modern agriculture produces on the environment and the waste of the economic-social activity that man leaves behind; remains of plastics, bottles, cans and other inorganic substances.
3. Economic instruments used to deal with environmental problems
Economic instruments use market forces to integrate economic and environmental decisions, but the main drawback of this type of instrument is the valuation of environmental services because environmental goods affected by externalities do not have an economic value in the market.
Among the multiple economic instruments that can be used to treat environmental problems, we can highlight the taxes and fiscal incentives that can be: rates, special contributions, bonuses, prices, credits, ecological labels, green rates, environmental insurance and green taxes.. Tax incentives can be characterized as an economic instrument of environmental policy that can encourage a change in attitude and behavior of economic agents to reduce the negative impact of certain industrial and productive practices.
To make the decision to use the economic instruments to be applied in defense of the environment, either through a regulatory system or through an environmental tax, it is necessary to evaluate various criteria. However, before mentioning the selected criteria, it is worth mentioning that the purpose or goal of either system should be to obtain greater efficiency and reduce environmental impact as quickly as possible.
Below are the steps to follow to evaluate these criteria:
- Effectiveness: certainty that the Instrument to be applied reaches the proposed environmental goal, with what speed and flexibility Motivation: That pollutants reduce the environmental impact, in other words, if these instruments better promote innovation in the development of less harmful technologies Cost: If the administrative cost of the instrument for the government authorities that have to apply it rises and for how much, It questions how efficient the system to be applied is, that is, whether or not it is costly to companies and consumers, in order for them to seek profitability and reduce costs. It evaluates which system is less arbitrary when it comes to safeguarding freedom and justice, as well as more pragmatic considerations concerning the ease with which said economic instrument can be implemented.
4. Environmental Energy Tax
Among environmental taxes, energy taxes stand out both for their environmental rationality (given the strong problems associated with the use of fossil fuels) and for their fiscal power. In recent years there has been an intense debate on the environmental nature of conventional energy taxation that has been highlighted by the recognition of the role of this tax in the protection and improvement of the environment (Gago, Labandeira and Rodríguez, 2002).
Like all human activities, but to a greater extent, the energy sector causes negative impacts on the environment. This is mainly due to the emission of polluting substances from combustion plants and plants.
These include electricity generators, storage of waste from power plants, the use of electricity transmission networks, etc. Energy taxes, in addition to allowing the achievement of substantive and stable income, potentially have positive environmental effects, in terms of the selection of clean technologies and / or global dissuasion of demand.
Therefore, it is important to know the role that environmental taxes can play in general, and energy taxes in particular, if the geographical scope of the environmental problem is known.
Energy-environmental taxation is divided between own and assigned taxes. The former are the maximum reflection of the tax power as they are voluntarily created, the latter allow the definition and full management of all its components. The assigned taxes, on the other hand, can be exclusive or shared and have or do not have regulatory capacity, the presence of shared assigned taxes without regulatory capacity is common.
5. Main environmental problems in Cuba
The Cuban State has declared national sovereignty over natural resources and has promoted an active process of recovery and protection of them, having man as its center and the comprehensive satisfaction of their material, educational, cultural and aesthetic needs, incorporating the entire society to care for environmental problems.
CITMA has taken into account for the definition of the main environmental problems of the country, those with the greatest impact and that take place on the broadest national scale, taking into account, among other factors:
- The impact on large or significant areas of the national territory Alterations to the health and quality of life of the population The economic consequences The effect on ecosystems and biological resources.
From the analysis of the factors expressed, the Main Environmental Problems and the causes that cause them are identified:
- Soil degradation: Affects large areas of the country's agricultural area, the main economic activity Affects forest cover: Fires affect the country's natural and artificial forests and degrade soils Pollution: Affects fishing, agriculture, tourism, among other sectors; ecosystems and the quality of life in general. Loss of biological diversity: It affects fishing, agriculture, tourism, among other sectors; ecosystems and quality of life in general. Lack of water: Not all economic, social and environmental needs can be met.
All these factors analyzed have a complex and dynamic interrelation, affecting the quantity and quality of our natural resources in their link with economic and social development.
The other crucial factor that also contributes to the worsening of the country's environmental problems is the concentration of industrial facilities in urban areas, the use of obsolete technologies, technological indiscipline, as well as the failure to introduce Cleaner Production practices into industries..
5.1 Activities that cause environmental problems in Cuba
The levels of sanitation coverage, largely determined by the growing economic and financial difficulties that the country is facing, show a deterioration in environmental quality, the vast majority of which come from agricultural, domestic-municipal and industrial activities.
Contamination problems still persist due to inappropriate waste management practices, mainly livestock and sugar. The financial resources allocated in the state budget for the annual investment plans for the country's environmental problems are insufficient for the minimization, treatment, use and reuse of waste from agri-food, industrial, tourism, hospital and domestic activities.
5.2 Treatment of environmental problems in Cuba
Environmental problems in Cuba are treated using regulatory instruments, economic regulation instruments, and pollution prevention and control actions.
The Environment Law in its Article 18 establishes that Cuban environmental policy is executed through adequate management that uses instruments of economic regulation. It can be said then, that said law recognizes environmental taxation as one of the economic instruments, which are more specifically regulated. This law has the characteristic of having been established as a framework law, for which reason it does not cover or exhaust the regulation of environmental taxes like any other matter contained in it, the adoption of complementary regulations is required for its completion, which Although they may or may not be of a lower rank, they take the regulation of the matter in question to a more detailed level.
The Instruments of Economic Regulation constitute the application of certain traditional economic mechanisms in order to protect the environment.
In Cuba, given the inconvenience of influencing the protection of the environment only through regulatory instruments, especially in the presence of a decentralizing trend in the economy and a certain openness to foreign capital, they have gone in search of new instruments.
For Cuba, the market and its driving levers are not the magic solution to the problems of the efficient allocation of resources, but nevertheless, in today's world conditions, it is necessary to establish the use of certain mechanisms of economic influence that make interests compatible of the producers with the strategic aims of the environment.
5.3 Reasons for the scant use of environmental taxes in Cuba
In Cuba, the application of economic instruments has not been a linear, stable and successful process in all cases because most of the instruments applied lack a specific evaluation of their effectiveness, others have been developed in part in relation to the initial goals. and some have never been applied.
One of the factors that condition to date the use and application of different instruments of economic regulation in Cuba are associated with the current conditions of the Cuban economy, to which must be added, the international scenario.
The other aspect that has largely conditioned this process is due to the absence of experiences in the economic evaluation of impacts on the environment and the few experiences in the application in the country of economic valuation techniques in this field..
In general, the process of formulating the policy for the use of economic instruments in Cuba faced various barriers from its inception, some of them are listed below:
1. Objectives
- Economic situation of the country in general and of the business system with financial difficulties. Initial state of implementation of the Tax Law and its priorities aimed at financial sanitation and little experience in handling environmental taxes.
2. Subjective
- Lack of qualified personnel with mastery of the techniques necessary for the use of economic instruments. Little mastery in the business sector of environmental problems. Little mastery of the environmental authority itself of their usefulness.
3. The absence of environmental accounting in companies and economic entities, on the one hand, and the lack of the corresponding accounting control of the National Environmental Heritage.
4. The lack in the economic sector of the country of a general environmental perception or culture at the level of entrepreneurs and at the level of economics technicians for the management of techniques for the application of these instruments.
5.4 Socio-economic activities that take place on the beaches and that affect the environment
Despite the financial difficulties that the country faces, derived mainly from the world economic crisis in the capitalist world in which it must be inserted, it is known that within the medium and long-term economic perspectives, tourism will continue being one of the locomotive sectors of the country's economy.
These perspectives favor the conditions for the development of economic instruments linked to this sector, along with another no less important due to its weight, which is its extreme dependence on the environmental quality of our country, our beaches and our nature.
In the natural resource "beach" multiple activities are carried out, not only tourist ones, since economic activities are carried out in them, ranging from tourism, oil exploitation, construction, gastronomy, housing buildings among many others.
All activities related directly or not to tourism that take place on the beaches justify their presence in the place by the attractiveness that the natural resource “beach” constitutes for its development.
The natural degradation that this resource suffers, plus that generated by human activity, advise implementing a tax figure that allows:
- Encourage their care Discourage actions of an economic nature that do not take into account the peculiarities and requirements of their conservation Have a minimum of financial resources to deal with restoration actions.
5.5 Need to implement a tax in Cuba for oil activity
After having analyzed the various aspects related to the environmental situation of the country, the need to create a tribute for the oil activity from the natural beach resource is verified, given that various activities are carried out there, ranging from tourism, gastronomy, oil extraction etc.
The reason why the creation of this tribute is proposed is given the nature of this activity, taking into account that it is one of the most polluting in the entire country.
It is also verified that the country does not have specific taxes and that they emphasize the change of behavior of different legal entities in this branch, with respect to pollution, but that the change is only due to the exploitation and use of this resource, that is why proposes a different tribute to change the behavior of the promising agents of externalities in this activity.
For the formation of this tax figure, the elements that would make up said tax would be as follows:
- The taxable economic fact is constituted by: The rational use of oil for profit. The tax base will be the gross income captured by this economic activity. The tax rate can be the exploitation time of this resource or the area that is being polluted measured in m2.
6. General Conclusions
- The main environmental problems in the world are fundamentally caused by the contamination of water, air and soil. Environmental problems in Cuba are caused by the concentration of industrial facilities in urban areas, the use of obsolete technologies, the lack of technological discipline and the non-introduction of cleaner production practices in industriesThe country uses legislative and economic instruments for the protection of the environment, but in current practice it is verified that the instruments of economic regulation specifically pursue collection purposes and do not affect the change of behavior of those who pollute the environment. proposes the need to create a tribute for the oil activity, taking into account that it is one of the most polluting in the whole country.
7. Bibliographic References
Gutierrez. And, (2006) Proposal of an economic instrument in order to incentivize the payment of costs associated with atmospheric pollution. Bachelor's thesis. Cuba, Accounting and Finance Department, Universidad Central de las Villas. Chapter 1, Page 9.
Jodigi, F. and P. Davidson, (2009) Theoretical bases for the outline of an environmental tribute in Cuba. Case study of the beach tax. Bachelor's thesis. Cuba, Accounting and Finance Department, Universidad Central de las Villas Santa Clara. Ch. 1, page 56.
Labandeira, X.; López, X.; Picos, F and M. Rodríguez, (2006) Energy-environmental taxation and regional financing, University of Vigo, Spain.
Idem 2; Ch. 2, p. 34
Meek. And, (2008) Proposal for a tax on air pollution in Cuba. Master's Thesis. Cuba, Accounting and Finance Department, Universidad Central de las Villas. Chapter 2, page 4144
Idem 3; Chap. 2, page 90
Idem 3; Ch. 2, p. 94
8. Bibliographies
Gutierrez. And, (2006) Proposal of an economic instrument in order to incentivize the payment of costs associated with atmospheric pollution. Bachelor thesis. Central University of the Villas.
Jodigi, F. and P. Davidson, (2009) Theoretical bases for the outline of an environmental tribute in Cuba. Case study of the beach tax. Bachelor thesis. Central University of the Villas.
Labandeira, X.; López, X.; Picos, F and M. Rodríguez, (2006) Energy-environmental taxation and regional financing. University of Vigo, Spain 4. Meek. And, (2008) Proposal for a tax on air pollution in Cuba. Master's thesis. Central University of the Villas.
