Will The Green Growth Spur Tax Incentives In Europe?

Forrester has been exploring some of the fiscal incentives to drive Green IT behavior. Initial desk-research findings suggest a stark difference between North American and European countries in this space.

While Europe appears out in front with legislative directives such as WEE, ROHS, EuP, etc., it has not yet implemented attractive economic incentives to further motivate IT purchasing behavior of traditionally low emitting business. North America appears slightly ahead of the game here, with tax incentives and utilities rebates on-line or in place for the greening of IT. For example, PG&E — a Californian utility company — offers rebates from $300 to $600 for each server eliminated through the use of Sun or VMware virtualization products. However, the overall impact of current European government measures will hardly influence the behaviors of IT end-user businesses in the near future if the focus remains that of restrictions and not incentives.

It will be interesting to see how the European situation changes in the next year, what various governments will focus on, and whether Europe will be following the US Environmental Protection Agency’s steps on tax incentives.