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The British government is raking in billions more in so-called green taxes than it needs to erase the country’s carbon footprint, the Taxpayers’ Alliance said in a report.

The lobby group said emissions in 2005 had done damage worth an estimated 11.7 billion pounds, compared with green taxes and charges of 21.9 billion pounds the same year.

The alliance said the 11.7 billion pounds figure covered the "social cost" of climate change to the world, such as weather changes and related disasters. UK green taxes should not exceed this figure, it added.

Fuel duty and vehicle excise duty were between 30 and 40 times higher than needed to cover estimates of the social cost of CO2 emissions. The group also said that, on average, UK households were "over-paying" 400 pounds a year.

The group said government ministers are "cynically" raising revenue rather than using the money to improve the environment.