Environmental taxes account for 6.2% of all revenues from taxes and social contributions in the EU-27

The EU-27 raised around €292 billion from environmental taxes corresponding to 2.4% of GDP and 6.2% of taxes and social contributions (TSC) in 2010. As a percentage of TSC, the trend of environmental taxes has been downward throughout the period 1995 to 2008 with environmental tax revenue dropping by 1 percentage point of TSC to 5.95% in 2008. A brief rise to 6.24% occurred in 2009 due to the fall in government revenue which resulted from the financial crisis. In 2010 the percentage again decreased to 6.19% of TSC.