What do monopoly, bridge, football, and business have in common? They are all games with losers and winners. Winners master the rules of the game better than the losers, applying better strategies. Football leaders changed their rules to incentivize more attractive games. For example, “Three points for a win” was introduced in football in 1981. It was supposed to encourage more attacking play than “two points for a win”. Teams will not settle for a draw if the prospect of gaining two extra points (by playing for a late winning goal) outweighs the prospect of losing one point by conceding a late goal to lose the match.

The rules of the game in our society are determined by the laws of nature… as well as by our political leaders. They decide what one can do and what one can’t do. They determine how we can win. Politics impose heavy levies on cigarettes (300% VAT & levies), and only 6% VAT on food. Politicians (at all levels) decide that parking a car is 28€ per year (in Schaerbeek) and a bike costs 60€ (in a safe box that can fit 6 bikes). Again, political leaders (at EU level albeit) enable fiscal optimization internally (via Luxemburg, Ireland and the Netherlands), as well as via fiscal paradises at our borders (Monaco, Switzerland, Andorra, Man, Jersey, etc.).

Current rules of the game are biased heavily towards encouraging de facto, non-sustainable initiatives. A florilegium of examples in Belgium:

· Food: beef (6% VAT); coke (sugar tax starts to be introduced); massive subsidies (33% of EU budget) for polluting “chemical” agriculture (chemicals de facto oil- & gas-dependent) vs. no (EU) subsidies for environmentally friendly market gardeners; bio regulation is full of loopholes, allowing bio products from central American countries (avocado) that wouldn’t even pass a regular food safety in Europe

· Energy: Today, a family pays €100 in Flemish and Federal taxes (& levies) on purchasing 1 MWh of electricity. With that €100 (prior price surge), a family can buy 1.9 MWh of natural gas or 2.1 MWh of heating oil. The levy on the desired alternative (electricity) is twice as high as the total price of the fuels that we want to phase out. Belgium is taxing the energy transition today.

· Housing: Renovation works mean review of your housing tax (often increased by 100%), so better keep old non-renovated & energy consuming house, fuel oil for heating has no levies (not joking!)

· Transport: Airplanes have no VAT, no excises, are even being subsidized heavily (regional airports, Irish crews, etc.); company cars in Belgium; budget spent on car infrastructure vs. bike & pedestrian infrastructure (50:1 ratio is my guess), etc.

· Labour: As labour is heavily taxed in Europe (Belgium), it is a per default encouragement of delocalization of production activities towards countries with lower labour standards and more polluting electricity (coal).

As long as the rules of the game don’t change dramatically, sustainable initiatives have little or no chance. Often, the regulators focus on incentivizing (with peanuts) sustainable behaviours, but the de facto long-term gain is biased. The rules of the game – at regional, federal and European levels – continue to incentivize non-sustainable alternatives… the good news, changing the rules of the game costs nothing in subsidies… even better, they likely will improve government budgets.

As a final example, in Belgium only, the government facilitated in 2019, 4,6 billion € fossil subsidies (source: De Tijd):

–         2 billion to company cars

–         480 million to fuel cards

–         1 billion to professional diesel

–         670 million to aviation

So, as energy prices rise and climate disruption is present, it is time to change the rules of the game.