Green taxes, apparently they will save the world. I on the other hand think that they are being mishandled and misused as a means for generating income off of people unfairly. Green taxes, at their best, are a means of penalising those that make active choices to do environmentally unfriendly things and to take money from them to actually go about solving this country's climate change issues.

At their worst, however, they are used to plug gaps in local governance finances with disregard to reality and to simply make it looks like something is being done to tackle climate change...even if it means telling supermarkets to generate more profits without a set plan on how to spend those profits on green initiatives.

As it happens David Cameron has wised up to this and becomes the only party leader so far to actually start thinking sensibly on the issue of climate change when it comes to Green Taxes, for whatever means that is.

The reality of the world currently is this, if I use a car or any public transport, I pay directly or otherwise for some kind of duty imposed that may or may not be to try and solve climate change. Given that fuel duty is mostly a cash cow for the government and that no real change has occurred to duty prices since the calls for climate change have got loudest I am very cynical over just how "green" this area of taxation is. If I fly on a plane I am taxed for the impact burning the fuel does, there are trials where if I lived in certain parts of the country that would tax me for producing too much waste despite most of that waste able to be cut out at the source by manufacturers and producers, and in the most recent budget I can also have one off taxes depending on my choice of car...legitimate or otherwise.

We are all told of our individual duty to stop climate change, yet aren't treated as individuals when it comes to how much we're penalised for our actions. Those that truly take many environmentally unfriendly choices may be getting charged appropriately however it is likely that they are disproportionately paying less for their impact than those poorer than themselves, something ingrained in to our society as a whole.

Now I'm not saying Cameron isn't hypocritical in what he does, but on this issue of where taxation and change comes from he is to my mind right on the ball and shouldn't be drowned out because of poor choices he has made. As if any of the other big politicians around him aren't equally as hypocritical anyway. So where would this kind of thinking ideally go?

To me the only way green taxes can work is if the total of peoples choices are considered rather than their constituent parts. If a household manages to keep their carbon footprint well under the required level for households to bring the UK impact on climate change down yet flies to America twice a year then why exactly should they be penalised for effective carbon management? Equally why should we accept policies such as "pay as you throw" schemes where there is absolutely nothing to stop those that are less able to keep a 24 hour watch on their bin, and who puts stuff in it illegally, paying more and that therefore actually encourage environmentally unfriendly behaviour?

How much you drive is more important than what you drive, penalising those that choose a 4x4 only to drive it once a month is absolutely absurd when the real carbon emissions are coming slowly but surely from commuters in more fuel efficient vehicles every day. How much energy or fuel you use in one way cannot be measured without also taking in to account how much energy or fuel is saved or restricted in another.

What is needed, although most likely impossible to implement cost effectively, is an annual self-assessment that runs along side tax that allows people to truly show their impact. Jot down your mileage, your car band, your energy use, your water use, any flights and their distances as well as a multitude of other things that add to our carbon footprints and then tax people accordingly in line with what the ideal INDIVIDUAL target is. No more penalising for owning big cars but only using them when necessary, no more tutting at those that use a patio heater yet never drive a car.

We need in this country to grow up when it comes to this issue and start to think a little more progressively if individuals are truly to take the burden of taxation to "save the planet". I of course don't agree that anything other than a scaling back of green taxation should occur in the short term with, as Mr Cameron says, a more focused look at how business and investment can drive the change that is needed.

In the future however it may be needed to truly bring it down to an individual level, and when that happens properly I hope that it will be much better managed than through Labour where there is no strategy only announcements and charges.