British finance minister Gordon Brown backs substantially increasing taxes on air travel, and gas guzzling cars, the Financial Times reported on Friday. Citing unnamed British civil service sources, the newspaper said that Chancellor of the Exchequer Brown supports indirect taxation on some of the biggest carbon emitters as a way to change behaviour.
His pre-budget report, due in early December, is likely to increase the top rate of duty for the most polluting cars, and to raise air passenger duty, which currently ranges from five pounds (9.6 dollars, 7.4 euros) for short-haul flights to 40 pounds for long-haul trips.
Brown's decisions on so-called "green taxes" come in the wake of a report commissioned by the British government that said that inaction on global warming could cost the world up to a fifth of its gross domestic product.
The report, authored by former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern, also recommended an expansion of carbon trading schemes, which Brown will use the pre-budget report to support — he will back moves to link the EU's scheme with similar ones operated by certain American states.
Source: Agence France-Presse
