The Ministry of Environment is ready to start a dialogue with the Ministries of Finance, Energy, Transport and Labor to consider the first steps of a bold tax reform, which will shift the tax burden with an environmental orientation, said the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Development. Kougialis.
In a speech at the House of Europe in Cyprus, entitled "Europe's Transition to a Low Carbon Economy - Can Cyprus? Let us think differently! ", Mr. Kougialis stated that in order for Cyprus to achieve its goals regarding the transition to a low carbon economy," we must immediately decouple our economic growth from the consumption of resources ".
"To achieve this, we need a brave tax reform, which will not impose new taxes, but will shift the tax burden with an environmental orientation. "This reform must strengthen the integration of the environmental dimension and ensure full coherence between economic, social and environmental policies," he said.
He added that we need to review our fiscal policy in the areas of energy, transport, pollution and our natural resources.
"Such systemic and political reforms require political courage and political will, and this Government has demonstrated in practice that it has both. "Today we are ready to start a dialogue with the Ministry of Finance but also those (the Ministries) of Energy, Transport and Labor to consider the first steps of this reform," he said.
He added that the Ministry of Environment has already taken a number of measures, while a package of political decisions related to this reform and related to the Ministry is also planned.
He referred to the measures taken in the field of agriculture in the new rural development program 2014-2020, which is the financing of RES installation on agricultural holdings, the financing of innovative improved irrigation systems and the financing of rainwater collection infrastructure in greenhouses.
He added that in the field of Water protection, for water costing purposes, resource costs and environmental costs are introduced in 2017.
In the field of household waste management, the Ministry, he said, strengthens the separate sorting and recycling with a program of 15 million euros, which is underway in the coastal municipalities, the introduction of the Cypriot uniform management fee and the implementation of the Pay as I Fly system.
"The package we are developing and implementing proves that we are mobilizing all our policies towards a competitive, low-carbon, low-carbon economy that we owe to our country and to future generations," he said.
The Minister of Agriculture stated that in the case of Cyprus, based on the relevant EU allocation criteria, the national target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, which is expected to be set, will be 24% from 2005 levels. 2020 is a decrease of 5% compared to 2005. As he said, the estimates so far show that a decrease of 9% has been achieved compared to 2005. For 2020, he added, there is also a binding target for the contribution of Renewable Energy Sources 13% in total energy consumption. Based on 2014 data, RES already contribute 9%.
Source: KYPE