The Birmingham Post: Green campaign seems just another way to raise taxes

There has always been something more than a little nebulous about offsetting carbon footprints.

While more and more people are convinced that it must be a "good thing" to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, the notion that individuals can somehow atone for their polluting lifestyles through a series of taxes and one-off charges takes some believing. The person who volunteers to pay a special carbon offset charge while flying from Birmingham to Mallorca on holiday may feel virtuous when he leaves the aircraft in Palma, but what impact if any does this really have on reducing global warming?

Nevertheless, carbon offsetting sounds as if it ought to achieve something positive and the words have certainly been used on many occasions by Government Ministers keen to justify a fast-growing range of environmental taxes. Fuel duty, road tax, the Climate Change Levy, air passenger duty, congestion charges and, coming soon, special levies on refuse collection combine to deliver a hefty income to HM Treasury under a general all-encompassing fight against the effects of climate change.

The trouble is, as the TaxPayers' Alliance pressure group points out today, green taxes already pull in £10 billion more for the Government than it would cost to offset the UK's entire carbon footprint. On average every household in the UK pays £400-a-year more in levies than it would cost to cover their own footprint, according to the TPA.

Separate research underlines a distinct meanness when it comes to rewarding those who do take sustainability seriously.

The Government receives £30 billion a year in green taxes, but gives back just two per cent of that in tax breaks to people who choose to adopt environmentally-friendly lifestyles.

It is hardly surprising, therefore, that green taxes are regarded somewhat cynically by the public, with 63 per cent telling a YouGov survey they believed the Government was using the issue as an excuse to pull in more cash.

Climate change and global warming are issues that should concern us all and must be taken seriously, but Ministers should realise they have a long way to go to persuade voters that the carrot and stick approach is both justified and working. A comprehensive breakdown of green taxation, showing how much money is raised and exactly how it is used to stimulate environmental change, is required in order to bring public opinion on board.