As taxes on Greenhouse Gas Emissions [GhGe] are set to extend in depth with tariff increases and expand in scope beyond core industries and with fewer exceptions, it will be critical to follow them from policymaking to implementation. This project aims to investigate the role of legal experts in translating models of economically efficient greenhouse gas emissions taxation into operational tax systems and implementing them in national legal jurisdictions. Through a comparison of three European countries with different energy-industrial composition – Denmark, Norway and France – the study will give us new insights into the implementation and operation of policies deemed central to a just and effective transition.
The study will combine methods from the sociology of professions and expertise and public administration by relying on a mapping of national professional structures, interviews with experts in and outside the public sector and policy discourse analysis. The study thus places itself in a sociological tradition of investigating the relationship between expertise and politics as drivers of societal change.
The project focuses on three main aspects of carbon taxation: first a ‘mapping’ of the professional structure of ‘green tax expertise’, focusing on what professional work is associated with the establishment of carbon tax systems, and which groups are claiming this work in the private and public sector. Second, how these changes impact the expertise and organisation of existing corporate tax lawyers. Third, how the current policy processes around the expansion in scope of carbon tax systems (as for example in the cases of agriculture, carbon capture and firm exemptions) are impacted and seen by different legal expert groups.
