Climate Policy Lessons From France

I loved French President Sarkozy’s carbon tax proposal, so it was disheartening to see it get mauled by lawmakers:

“We will not touch households, hauliers or fishermen,” Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo told reporters.

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Industries such as metals and refineries, seen as major polluters, were spared under the earlier tax plan…

Borloo announced plans to launch formal talks with companies and authorities on ways to tax industry fairly, possibly through incentive schemes and tax credits. After this consultation he aims to present a new bill to parliament by May.

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The leading business association, Medef, called on Tuesday for the tax to be postponed to 2011…

I guess today’s news is more tragic confirmation that the challenge to climate policy is not the pricing vehicle, it’s politics.

This post originally appeared on Sightline’s Daily Score blog