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France announces carbon tax
Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com
September 10, 2009



The President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, has announced that he will implement a carbon tax to help "save the human race" from global warming.

The tax of 17 Euros (about 25 dollars) per ton of carbon will be placed on the consumption of oil, gas, and coal, but not electricity. Eighty percent of France's electricity is delivered by nuclear power.

"We want to change behavior toward fossil energies," the French leader said in a speech in the city of Culoz in eastern France. "Changing behavior to help protect our environment is the aim of the carbon tax."

Many in France are critical of the plan, including the Socialist party which opposes Sarkozy who has stated the tax will hurt the poor. The proposition is also opposed by two thirds of French people according to recent polls. However some environment organizations, like Greenpeace France, say the tax is too low and should include electricity.

Heavy industries and power companies are exempt from the tax, since they are apart of the EU's carbon trading program.

Sweden has the highest carbon tax in Europe, charging 100 Euros (145 dollars) per ton of consumption, nearly six times Sarkozy's proposal.







Related articles

Lomborg calls for a carbon tax

(06/17/2009) Bjorn Lomborg, a Danish business school professor and author who has riled environmentalists by arguing that addressing climate change should be a lesser priority than health and nutrition initiatives, is calling for a $7 per ton tax on carbon dioxide emissions, reports the Wall Street Journal.


Cap or Tax Carbon Emissions?

(02/04/2009) Debate is raging about the relative merits of a carbon tax or a cap and trade system as the centerpiece of federal legislation to reduce emissions that fuel global warming. Here is why cap and trade must be the U.S. policy instrument of choice.


Carbon tax will ease transition to sensible climate policy

(08/13/2008) The management of carbon dioxide and the climate represent both an economic development challenge and the ecological problem of the next hundred years. Energy use, economic success and carbon dioxide emissions are, currently, intertwined. A carbon market that represents the true cost of energy and the disposal of our waste products in the environment is a potential long-term policy mechanism for carbon dioxide management. However, the strong interconnection between carbon dioxide emissions and economic success distinguishes the carbon market from other environmental markets used to control pollution. Therefore evolution to that solution is not straightforward; there are a series of necessary steps needed to develop a market.






CITATION:
Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com (September 10, 2009). France announces carbon tax . http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0910-hance_france_tax.html


Tags:
europe carbon dioxide carbon trading carbon tax global warming mitigation climate change politics climate change politics Environmental Law jeremy hance environment carbon emissions coal economics energy environmental economics environmental politics fossil fuels greenhouse gas emissions pollution

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