Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the savings to the public purse of reductions in carbon emissions leading to a low carbon economy.

I have been asked to reply.

The Climate Change Act (2008) commits the UK to reducing emissions of GHGs and the accompanying Impact Assessment sets out that within the context of global efforts to limit climate change the benefits to the UK will be greater than the costs. However, the department has not made specific estimates of the savings to the public purse from a move to a low carbon economy as the precise fiscal impact of carbon emission reductions will depend on the mix of policies used.

For this reason individual assessments of the fiscal impacts of policies have been made and published where appropriate. In addition, it is worth noting that in the Coalition Agreement, the Government committed to increase the proportion of tax revenue accounted for by environmental taxes.