Calls for a rise in environment taxes may be misguided, according to new research published as MPs increased the pressure on Alistair Darling to announce a “green” Budget next week.

An all-party committee on Wednesday lambasted the Treasury for presiding over a decline in green taxes, as a proportion of all taxes, from a peak in 1999 of 9.7 per cent to 7.3 per cent in 2006.