The Maltese believe that the best way to promote environment-friendly products is to reduce taxes on them, a Eurobarometer survey has found.

The survey, published today, found that some 46 percent of EU citizens believe that the best way to promote environment-friendly products is to increase taxes on products which harm the environment, and reduce them on the environmentally-friendly ones.

Britons were most in favour of such a double taxation system and the Maltese were the least, since they instead preferred to just reduce taxes on environmentally-friendly products.

The survey found that four of every five Europeans said they considered the environmental impact of the products they bought.

Environmental consideration was highest in Greece where more than nine in 10 of those surveyed said the impact of a product on the environment played an important aspect in their purchasing decisions. Europeans were evenly divided about claims by producers on the environmental performance of their products while nearly half thought that a combination of increased taxes on environmentally-damaging products and decreased taxes on environmentally-friendly products would best promote eco-friendly products.

There was also strong support for retailers to play a role in promoting environmentally-friendly products and for mandatory carbon labelling.

EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said: "The battle against climate change must be fought on all fronts and everyone must contribute. It is not only the remit of companies and governments; consumers also have their part to play. By purchasing environmentally and climate-friendly products individual customers send the right signal to producers who respond in turn by producing more eco-friendly products."