The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development reveals that from 1996 to 2005, the ratio of Gross Domestic Product accounted for environmental taxation in twenty-nine leading countries of the world, have diminished by around 0.2%.

KPMG's global head of tax, Loughlin Hickey said, "Given the increase in government rhetoric on green issues in the past ten years, and the enthusiasm among campaigners for new environmental taxes, it is odd to see that the apparent importance of environmental taxes in so many economies has actually fallen." He further said that if green taxations are used for environmental protection, they would be expecting to see green taxes increase as a part of Gross Domestic Product.

Governments might have found out that taxes may be an ineffective tool when it is utilized to follow single aim of diminishing environmental damage. The study by KPMG examines the idea that the governments must switch tax policy focus from taxing "goods" (like savings or work) to taxing "bads" (like pollution).

Those who support this idea believe that it brings double profit by decreasing unwanted activity and by increasing revenue. The study shows that in the United Kingdom, the drop in receipts is quite large compared to a drop in real times in taxes on road fuels. This fact is confirmed by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) study of its statistics and figures.

Mr. Hickey remarked, "Governments may decide that tackling environmental problems requires a much more sophisticated set of responses than simply devising a new tax." He further added that getting the balance correct between taxes and other measures is perhaps the greatest challenge for the governments all over the world.