Beware gifts coming from French presidents!
Onésimo Alvarez-Moro
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President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday signalled his support for the introduction of a carbon tax in return for cuts to social charges as he set out his ambitions to turn France into a global leader in environmental protection.
In his first big speech on green issues since being elected five months ago, Mr Sarkozy promised to consider imposing some form of “climate and energy contribution”, but only as part of a wider overhaul of the tax system to favour employment.
Business groups are strongly opposed to an environmental charge, but green groups regard it as the test of France’s commitment and crucial to putting a proper price on carbon emissions.
Mr Sarkozy would prefer a Europe-wide carbon tax, and called for the European Union to look into taxing imports from countries that had not signed the Kyoto treaty mandating greenhouse gas reductions, a proposal of his predecessor, Jacques Chirac.
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