Revenues from taxes levied as environmental measures are no longer producing the return they once did، according to KPMG.

Quoting figures from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development، KPMG´s report، Taxation and the Environment، shows between 1996 and 2005 the proportion of GDP accounted for by environmental taxes across 29 of the largest economies in the world fell by an average of 0.2%.

´Given the increase in government rhetoric on green issues in the past ten years، and the enthusiasm among campaigners for new environmental taxes، it is odd to see that the apparent importance of environmental taxes in so many economies has actually fallen،´ said KPMG global head of tax، Loughlin Hickey.

Frank Sangster، head of the environmental tax and incentives group at KPMG UK، said: ´It (green taxes) may be so effective in making people change their behaviour that the revenue from these taxes has fallen.´

An example of this was the plastic bag tax initiated by the Irish government where they imposed a levy in 2002 which decreased usage overnight from an estimated 328 bags per person to 21.

Sangster said the money raised by the government levy supports ´environmental education and waste management programmes، so it may be a combination of education and taxation that is working، rather than just taxation.´

He added that the study argues ´there is no such thing as a pure environmental tax، just taxes with environmental effects´.