The government has made real progress on climate change with its pledge that new homes will be "zero carbon" by 2016, the report said, but needs to offset carbon from now until then by drastically reducing emissions from existing homes.

BBC: NEWS | UK | New homes rush 'fails eco test'

Under current rules, higher rate taxpayers can donate unlimited amounts of money to charity and offset it against their tax bill to effectively bring the amount of tax they pay down - sometimes to zero.

BBC: Charity tax row: Donors warn of 'brake' on donations