EU grants for green groups push up your energy bills: Families fund lobbyists whose campaigns lead to higher taxes

Britain has given £8.6million to environmental groups since 1997

Campaigners are pushing for new regulations that could lead to higher energy bills

Critics say the handouts result in families paying twice- once for the grants and again in higher costs



Critics say the handouts could result in families paying twice - once for the grants and again in higher energy bills

British families are unknowingly providing millions of pounds to green lobbyists who campaign for higher taxes on energy bills.

Since 1997, £86 million has been handed to climate change and environmental groups by the EU, according to the Taxpayers’ Alliance.

It claims Britain’s share of funding for organisations including Friends of the Earth, WWF, and Climate Action Network stands at £8.6 million during that period.

The TPA says many of these taxpayer-funded lobbyists campaign for new regulations that could lead to higher household energy bills.

The report found that 25 European-based groups have received in excess of 1m euros (£860,000) of public funds in a 15-year period.

Matthew Sinclair, Director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said the handouts result in families paying twice - once for the grants and again in higher energy bills.

‘Many of the environmentalist groups funded with European Commission grants do not appear to be the sort to get their hands dirty looking after endangered plants and animals,’ he said.

‘Instead the bureaucrats in Brussels are spending our money to fund their own lobbyists, to create artificial pressure for ever more onerous regulations that hurt British business and add to families’ bills.

‘Taxpayer subsidies for radical environmentalists need to end. Politicians should be looking to put in place a more affordable energy policy rather than caving in to demands from their sock puppets for ever more onerous taxes and regulations.’



One group, the European Environmental Bureau, has received £10 million in public funding, the TPA claim. During this time, they have attacked the development of shale gas - which has the potential to reduce power bills - and pushed for tougher climate targets that could see energy charges increase.

Yesterday, the TPA launched a campaign to persuade ministers to ‘stop the energy swindle’ as households struggle with record charges.

By the end of the decade punitive green taxes will help inflate the average family energy bill by 29 per cent to £1,900, a study by the organisation found.

It concluded that green charges and VAT will make up one third of energy bills - a staggering £620 per household.

In today’s report, the TPA said that ‘taxpayer funded lobbying and political campaigning does not represent any independent economic or popular interest’.

Tory MP Dominic Raab said the practice was hurting low and middle income households and inists it won't make our environment cleaner

It found examples of groups campaigning for policy goals, such as regulations to reduce greenhouse gases, that would result in an increased tax burden on already struggling families.

Tory MP Dominic Raab said: ‘The green gravy train is the next big lobbying scandal. British taxpayers are coughing up millions to Brussels, which funds environmental groups to lobby national governments for pet regulation including subsidies that help keep our energy bills so high.

‘It is ludicrous boondoggle that won’t make our environment cleaner, and hurts low and middle income households.’



Ruth Porter, Communications Director at the Institute of Economic Affairs, said: ‘It’s outrageous that the EU funds any political lobbying at all. But what is so offensive about this example is that it is lobbying for policy that will push up energy prices at a time when many families in the UK are struggling with rising living costs.



The TaxPayers' Alliance say by the end of the decade green taxes will help inflate the average family energy bill by 29 per cent to £1,900

The UK government must do more to ensure that British taxpayers aren’t funding organisations to campaign for policies that they don’t support and that aren’t in their best interests.’

A spokesman for Friends of the Earth saidL: ‘We rely on the support of individuals and charitable trusts for over 95 per cent of our income and receives less than one per cent from the EU.

‘Friends of the Earth Europe also receives EU funding for its important campaigns that help to protect people and wildlife.