Application of exergy for the determination of the pro-ecological tax replacing the actual personal taxes

According to some published suggestions, taxes should not be a kind of penalty for positive effects of human activity (productivity, invention) but should burden negative effects, like the depletion of natural resources, and deleterious impacts on the environment. The consumption of non-renewable resources of exergy has been proposed in the present paper as a measure of the negative effects of human activity and a basis for a pro-ecological tax. A proposed course for determining this tax has been formulated. The method presented takes into account also the deleterious impact of waste products on the natural environment. the wear of machines and installations and the import of foreign products. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.