Word: carbone
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...President Nicolas Sarkozy ranked it beside "decolonization, election of the President by universal suffrage, abolition of the death sentence and legalization of abortion" in the list of national accomplishments. Yet a mere seven months after making those lofty comparisons, Sarkozy this week decided to bury his vaunted tax on carbon emissions designed to help slow global warming. The move was the first policy fatality in the wake of the March 21 regional elections that handed leftist opponents a landslide victory...
...Less than 24 hours after the disastrous regional results were announced, Sarkozy instructed Prime Minister François Fillon to cull the carbon tax rather than apply it as planned. The reason: the reform was one conservative voters and legislators alike have derided as leftist. At its heart was a $23 tax on each ton of carbon produced - mainly applied at the gas pump and via heating bills. (See TIME's coverage of the World Energy Technologies Summit...
...elected to do,'" says political analyst Jean-Luc Parodi. "He's the example that remarkable people are equally remarkable when they make mistakes, and he's having to face some of those. In reality, the disastrous regional elections gave him the excuse to backtrack on the very unpopular carbon...
...carbon tax had been plagued with troubles from the start - including the near refusal by rightist legislators to pass it until the Elysée whipped them into line in November 2009. A month later - just days before it was set to take effect - France's Constitutional Council struck the law down because it unlawfully applied measures to consumers while exempting French companies, by far the biggest carbon emitters. Sarkozy pledged to widen the measure to include businesses. But that only mobilized France's employers' lobby. With the voters finally having had their say, Sarkozy has decided to shelve...
...until the E.U. comes up with a similar initiative applicable to all member states. "Environmental dumping threatens our jobs, [and] it would be absurd to tax French companies while giving a competitive advantage to those in polluting countries," Sarkozy argued, saying he remained committed to a carbon tax as a necessary move to protect the environment - though only once nations "who continue to pollute without shame" agree to become as virtuous...