The first audit of the UK's environmental taxation has been released by the Taxpayers Alliance. The paper claimed that the government is raising a total of £10bn more from green taxes than is needed to envelope the cost of carbon footprint in the UK.

Claims made by the lobby group shows that just £11.7bn would have served the purpose of covering the cost of pollution resulted from the greenhouse gas emissions in 2005, whilst a total of £21.9bn were raised from green taxes.

"Green taxes and charges impose substantial costs on, amongst others, northern manufacturers and the NHS. Green taxes in the UK are already well in excess of the level they need to be to meet the academic estimates of the social costs of carbon emissions", commented Corin Taylor, research director.

The report comes after a recent YouGov voting in which nearly 63 per cent of those questioned acknowledged the comment: "Politicians are not serious about the environment and are using the issue as an excuse to raise more revenue from green taxes".

However, the Treasury has discarded the claims of the report saying that they are absurd.

"The government's definition of environmental taxes includes those taxes that are designed to primarily have an environmental impact - the climate change levy, aggregates levy and landfill tax. In arguing against these taxes, the Taxpayers' Alliance are being doubly dangerous - it would mean cuts to public services, schools and hospitals, as well as higher carbon emissions leading to accelerated climate change".