Birmingham Post: Green issues an excuse to raise taxes, says survey

By James Tapsfield

Nearly two-thirds of the public believe ministers are using environmental fears as an excuse to raise tax revenue, according to a poll today.

Their cynicism seems justified with green taxes raking in £10 billion more for the Treasury than it would cost to offset the entire UK's carbon footprint, according to one study.

And another claims the Government gives back just two per cent of the money it raises through environmental taxes in green tax breaks each year.

The poll findings are part of a dossier compiled by pressure group the TaxPayers' Alliance. A survey carried out by YouGov for the TPA found:

only a fifth of people thought politicians were genuinely trying to change behaviours using the tax system

63 per cent believed they were using the issue as an excuse to pull in more cash n nearly four-fifths voiced opposition to the so-called "pay as you throw" schemes floated by the Government to encourage recycling, despite previous surveys indicating a majority backed the idea

about 60 per cent said fuel duty was an unfair tax, while 45 per cent thought the same about air passenger duty - which was recently doubled by the Government

opinion was evenly split over whether they approved in principle of extra "green" charges on motoring and air travel - with 46 per cent saying they did not and 45 per cent saying they did.

Using previous international research into climate change, the report estimates covering the social cost of carbon emissions would have cost £11.7 billion in 2005. But receipts from "green" taxes such as fuel duty, road tax and the Climate Change Levy totalled £21.9 billion. On average every household in the UK paid £400 more in levies than it cost to cover their own footprint, the TPA claimed.

TPA chief executive Matthew Elliott said the public were right to suspect the motives of politicians.

"Not only are they split on whether new green taxes are a good idea, but our research proves that politicians have been using green taxes as a revenue raising measure and are cynically trying to win support for new ones by exploiting concern about climate change."

Meanwhile, accountants UHY Hacker Young claimed the Treasury receives about £29.3 billion in green taxes, such as air passenger duty, every year but hands back only £5 4 9 million to environmentally-friendly taxpayers. The group said the figures showed that despite the Government's rhetoric about green tax breaks, little money was actually paid out.

It said the Government raised a massive £25.1 billion on fuel duties and took in £2.1 billion in air passenger duty each year, but reduced vehicle excise duty for people who drive environmentally friendly cars cost it only £254 million.

Roy Maugham, tax partner at UHY Hacker Young, said: "It's surprising just how lopsided the Government's approach to green taxes has been over the last 10 years. It's all stick and very little carrot, but arguably a more balanced approach would be much more effective at hitting Britain's C02 targets.

A Treasury spokesman said: "This analysis is misleading. It makes no reference to the significant increases in funding for environmental protection measures - for example, landfill tax revenues are recycled to business waste reduction projects through Defra's Business Resource Efficiency and Waste programme.

The effects of global climate change are altering the face of the planet - and its maps, according to a leading atlas published today.

In the four years since the last edition of the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World went on sale, cartographers have been forced to redraw coastlines and reclassify types of land. The main culprits are climate change and ill-conceived irrigation projects, the atlas's editors said.

Particularly badly-hit parts of the world include the Aral Sea in central Asia which has been reduced by three-quarters in the past 40 years, and Lake Chad which has shrunk by a massive 95 per cent since 1963.

The Dead Sea is some 25 metres lower than it was 50 years ago and sections of rivers including the Rio Grande and Colorado in America, the Tigris in the Middle East and the Yellow River in China are now drying out each summer.

Bangladesh is particularly susceptible to heavier rains and rising sea waters as a result of climate change, with land disappearing into the ocean.

And there are fears that some places, particularly low-lying Pacific islands such as Tuvalu, could be quite literally wiped off the map in the coming years by rising sea levels, turning their populations into "climate refugees".

Cartographers are also keeping a close eye on the village of Shishmaref, Alaska, where the sea is creeping inland by up to three metres a year.

Editor-in-chief Mick Ashworth said: "We can literally see environmental disasters unfolding before our eyes. We have a real fear that in the near future famous geographical features will disappear forever.

There are also more obscure things like the Yellow River in China sometimes failing to reach the sea, which makes the coastline change. The outline of places are changing, like Bangladesh. Sea levels are rising about 3mm a year, which has strange effects on the coastline."

Many of the dramatic changes are heavily influenced by man-made projects such as irrigation schemes, for example the Aral Sea where waters were diverted for an ill-fated cotton growing scheme.

Is Whitehall using eco fears as a tax-raising measure? Let us know what you think at birmingham post.net