Creating Incentives for Greener Products: A Policy Manual for Eastern Partnership Countries

Promoting green growth requires well-designed institutions and environmental policy instruments that are effective in achieving their environmental objectives without imposing excessive burdens on the economy. There is growing recognition in OECD countries that economic instruments such as environmentally related taxes can be effective in stimulating a shift to less-damaging forms of production and consumption while providing producers and consumers with flexibility in making these adjustments. Behavioural changes stimulated by economic instruments may lead to the creation of new jobs and employment opportunities. Investments in new "cleaner" technology can be an important source of employment and business development. Where economic instruments generate revenues, the appropriate deployment of these revenues can also make a significant contribution to enhancing incomes and growth.

The European Union’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) struggle with environmental challenges related to the consumption and end-of-life management of many harmful products. This policy manual considers the potential use and implementation of four categories of product-related economic instruments to address some of these challenges: product taxes, tax differentiation based on environmental factors, deposit-refund systems and extended producer responsibility (EPR).