ENVIRONMENTAL taxes could pay for a £17 million rise in Jersey’s overseas aid contribution, according to a new report.

The Jersey Overseas Aid review panel say that the Island should raise its contribution to 0.7% of Gross National Income by 2020 and new taxes should pay for it. In their report, published this week, they say that it is people in the developing world who most suffer the effects of climate change, so environmental taxes are a fitting way to ‘square the circle’. The panel was set up on the recommendation of the Corporate Services Scrutiny sub-panel, who supported raising the level of Jersey’s contribution from its current £6 million to more than £23 million in their May report. They wanted the review panel, chaired by former States chief adviser Colin Powell, to come up with possible solutions to find the money. Mr Powell said that his panel supported Scrutiny’s findings and believed that Jersey should strive to achieve the 0.7% figure by 2020. And environmental taxes were one of a number of ways of paying the bill.