Green Budgeting: France and Italy Practices

Year 2022, Volume: 2 Issue: 2, 102 - 115, 24.12.2022

Halil Kete

Abstract

Successive industrial revolutions have led to unprecedented changes in the world in the last century. Economic systems that can survive, depending on the constant production and keeping the consumption alive, bring many problems with it. As a result of rapidly growing population and industrialization activities, environmental and climate problems have become one of the important agendas of policy makers. One of the fiscal policy tools that produce solutions to environmental and climate problems is green budgeting. This policy tool, which aims to make budgets more sensitive to the environment while preparing national and local budgets, is a relatively new practice. Especially in Europe, there are countries that implement this policy tool more. Green budgeting policy, which requires radical budget reforms and a determined management approach, is a long-term tool.
This study aims to deal with green budgeting, which is an important tool of environmentally friendly budgeting, from theoretical and practical aspects. Environmentally friendly green budgets can only be successful if they are implemented decisively by national and local governments. France and Italy, which are among the important countries that implement green budgeting, are discussed in the study. There are only two countries in Europe that have issued a "green budget statement", which is an important tool of environmentally friendly budgeting: France and Italy. Therefore, the green budget practices of these countries were chosen as sample country practices in the study. It has been observed that tagging and reporting practices are meticulously applied in these countries that have successfully implemented green budgeting. The environment, which is a global public good, can only be protected through international cooperation. The lack of standards and guidelines is among the biggest challenges in implementing environmentally conscious green budgets. The steps to be taken by international organizations in this regard can encourage countries that want to implement the green budget policy.

Keywords

Green Budgeting, Green Economy, Budget

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