Taxis can play an important role in sustainable transport systems, particularly as a complement to public transit. They improve access to transfer points, reduce dependence on private vehicles and help lower emissions and traffic congestion in urban areas. The development of ride-hailing services has integrated taxis into the sharing economy model, promoting the efficient use of transport resources. While the Polish legislature has recognised the potential of this market and regulated it, it has failed to introduce effective pro-environmental regulations for private vehicles. The lack of satisfactory solutions in this area has a significant impact on the development of a sustainable transport system and on the state of the environment.

The premise of the article is to present and analyse the basic issues regulating the confluence of the obligation to protect the environment and the principle of freedom of economic activity primarily in the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Tribunal and in the science of law. The author presents the constitutional norms concerning both analysed constitutional issues and analyses the rulings characteristic for the discussed subject matter, first of all of the Constitutional Tribunal. He points out that the obligation to protect the environment is, provided for in the Constitution itself, a limitation of the freedom of economic activity. In doing so, he points out that it is the duty of the legislator and the courts to try to balance the two values in accordance with the principle of sustainable development and to preserve the essence of the guarded freedom. He points out, however, by way of examples, that the principle of economic freedom is not very strongly protected at the constitutional level and its restriction is permissible to a wide extent. The main reason for the unconstitutionality of the provisions controlled by the constitutional court limiting the freedom of economic activity are their formal shortcomings or excessive ailment rather than an analysis of the infringement of the constitutionally protected value of the environment.