Unions are calling on the government to use energy companies' windfall profits to counteract rising fuel costs for the poorest and pay for green home improvements.
Energy industry regulator Ofgem has said that the EU emissions trading scheme will benefit
The TUC says that this is on top of a previous DTI estimate of £800m a year in extra profits to 2007 from the scheme's first phase.
Now the TUC's general secretary Brendan Barber is calling on the chancellor to introduce a green windfall profits tax on energy companies and to use the proceeds to increase spending on tackling fuel poverty, improving home insulation and other environmental and job creating initiatives.
Barber believes that this could make a major contribution to the government's target of eliminating fuel poverty by 2010, which has been made more difficult by energy price rises that have led to more than four million households suffering from fuel poverty.
"These excess profits do not flow from investment, innovation or hard work but simply result from the way that carbon trading has been implemented across
"While carbon trading has a crucial part to play in tackling climate change, these windfall profits will give it a bad name unless they are used to fund socially useful and green spending.
"This should be the centrepiece of a green Budget which should show how the government intends to implement the Stern Review's call for one per cent of GDP to be used to tackle global warming," Barber said.
