Britons split over price of going green

LONDON, Feb 6 (Reuters) Millions of Britons profess to have ''green'' credentials, but would rather pay environmental taxes than change their lives, a study shows.

At the same time, consumers who are otherwise unresponsive to environmental issues are willing to go green -- but only if the price is right, according to separate research.

Three-quarters of the British population will not change their travel plans following the hike in air passenger duty, a survey by Prudential reveals.

That includes a fifth of British adults -- equivalent to eight million people -- who say they agree in principle to the increase.

Chancellor Gordon Brown announced the tax rise -- which aims to reflect the environmental effects of air travel -- in December.

From the start of this month, the levy doubled to 10 pounds for short-haul economy flights and 40 pounds for long-haul economy. It rose to 20 pounds for business and first-class flights in Europe and 80 pounds for long-haul.

Only 11 per cent of those surveyed by the Pru said they were committed to curbing carbon emissions by flying less in future and 3 per cent said they felt greatly discouraged about flying following the tax hike.

However, other research published on Monday showed that even steadfast non-green consumers exhibit some evidence of an environmental conscience -- provided there are tangible financial benefits.

More than 75 percent of non-green consumers do not leave electrical appliances on stand-by and 60 percent use energy-saving bulbs in a quarter of the lighting in their homes -- purely to save money, according to independent financial comparison service The Motley Fool.

But when there is no financial payback in adopting green solutions, this band of consumers does not fare well.

One in four does not recycle any household waste and just 4 percent use green energy tariffs.

''Consumers are frequently torn between a desire to help the environment and a need to be financially prudent,'' said David Kuo, head of personal finance at Fool.co.uk. ''Sadly, the two are often diametrically opposed.'' He criticised the government's ''sledgehammer'' approach and said that green taxes were not the answer.

''Why does it cost twice as much to travel from London to Manchester by train than by air despite huge public and private investments in Britain's railways?'' he asked.

''Slapping on green taxes to deter air travel is unlikely to level the playing field -- it will only breed greater complacency amongst rail operators.

''Killing good trees to print bad legislation is not the answer -- the government can certainly do better.'' The Prudential research was conducted by YouGov among 2,369 adults, while the Motley Fool questioned 2,287 of its users.

REUTERS RL KP09002