French high court axes carbon tax law

PARIS, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- France's highest court struck down President Nicolas Sarkozy's hoped-for carbon tax, saying it was counterproductive in fighting climate change.

The Constitutional Court Wednesday ruled the law contains so many exemptions that it unfairly placed the burden of reducing carbon emissions on a minority of consumers, Radio France Internationale reported Thursday.

The law would have gone into effect Friday.

"The large number of exemptions from the carbon tax runs counter to the goal of fighting climate change and violates the equality enjoyed by all in terms of public charges," the ruling said.

"Less than half of all greenhouse gas emissions would have been covered" by a tax of roughly $24 per ton of carbon dioxide, burdening households instead of industry, EUobserver.com reported.

The ruling state the law totally exonerated from the tax "the emissions of power plants, the emissions of 1,018 of the most polluting industrial sites," targeting fuel and building heating "which are only one of the sources of carbon dioxide emissions."

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said the law would be reworked. However, analysts told EUobserver.com the ruling strikes at the law's core principles, so cosmetic editing likely would be insufficient for the judges.