Can he fix it? Sarkozy's carbon-tax plan derided by environmentalists

A “carbon” tax on transport, homes and factories, intended to make France a “green” model for other large economies, was unveiled yesterday by President Nicolas Sarkozy.

But the convoluted proposals, including mechanisms to refund most of the new energy levies through tax breaks and “green cheques”, were condemned by critics as half-hearted and a bureaucratic nightmare.
President Sarkozy insisted, however, that the carbon tax or “climate contribution” would put France on track to fulfill its promise to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions to a quarter of their present levels in the next 40 years. In theory, the taxes will grow steeper in the years ahead but the proposals are already contested by two-thirds of French voters and by many politicians on the left and within the President’s own centre-right party.

Mr Sarkozy wants, in the first stage, to impose a tax of €17 (