As the Copenhagen global warming conference was ending in chaos at the weekend, British tax campaigners released figures which claim that the British taxpayer in paying £21.8 billion more in so-called “green taxes” than the nation’s carbon emissions justify.

Gordon Brown has long been suspected of using environmental excuses as a means of raising so-called “stealth taxes” on commodities like petrol and diesel, blaming European Union legislation for having to do so.

But according to figures released by the TaxPayers’ Alliance, such legislation would require Britain to pay just £4.6 billion to offset our carbon emissions – but in fact we paid £24.7 billion last year, up by £1, 7 billion on the year before.

The alliance is calling for an end to “the green rip off.”