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French President Nicholas Sarkozy wants to impose a carbon tax on households and businesses that emit greenhouse gases. But the French say they feel too taxed already. Anchor Marco Werman finds out more from Guillaume Debre of the French TV Channel TF-1.

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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. French President Nicholas Sarkozy took a stand against global warming today. He announced a plan to introduce a carbon tax on French households and businesses that emit greenhouse gases.

NICHOLAS SARKOZY: [SPEAKING FRENCH]

TRANSLATOR: It’s time to act. Time is against us. It’s our generation that must decide and decide now. For too many years we put off until tomorrow the decisions we must take now.

WERMAN: Sarkozy’s dramatic flourish may not be enough to persuade French citizens many of whom feel they’re paying enough taxes already. Guillaume Debre is Washington correspondent for the French TV channel. He happens to be in Paris today. Guillaume explain how this tax would work.

GUILLAUME DEBRE: Well in a sense you pollute, you pay. Or phrased differently it’s sort of a buy yourself a good conscious. The government calls it, the contribution to the climate and the energy but everybody else calls it the carbon tax. Basically the goal is to tax the usage of energy that comes from fossil fuel. Everybody – households, businesses, companies – will pay all together 17 euros per ton of CO2 carbon dioxide emitted. So if you use your car you’ll pay more. If a plant uses coal or natural gas; they’ll pay more. The interesting thing is that you will pay by the ton of CO2 emitted. That means that the use of electricity if France will not be taxed because in France, as opposed to the US, 80% of electricity comes from nuclear plants, from renewable energy. So they do not emit CO2. The idea of course is by taxing CO2 the hope is that people will pollute less. The other interesting idea is that household people when they pollute and pay their carbon tax they will be actually reimbursed for whatever they pay. If you pay 100 euro of carbon tax you’re income tax will decrease so the net sum will be zero. That’s the idea. That’s what Sarkozy tried to propose this morning to basically make this tax bill easier to swallow because everybody here is opposed to a new tax.

WERMAN: Right I mean it’s kind of a zero sum game it sounds like but yet the French aren’t too excited about this tax.

DEBRE: No everybody’s pretty much against it. Even in his own party, the conservative party, people are against it. Again election in three years. Nobody wants to put higher taxes. What’s interesting is the green party is also opposed to it for different reasons. Because they think actually it’s just cosmetic. It’s sort of a placebo measure. You know the government wants to say they’re fighting for the environment but the 17 euro per ton is not enough. What they wanted is 32 euros per ton is about $50. Some suggested $100 euro per ton of CO2 emitted. It’s $140 per ton which is approximately what Sweden has. And the green movement and the green vote is at the core issue of this carbon tax. Sarkozy is a master of coalition building. He has in his government everybody from former leftist, to royalist, from people who were opposed abortion, to a feminist. And he wants to broaden his coalition and attract this green vote that’s pretty much up for grab. We’re three years away from the elections and he thinks that by you know if he kept putting more green on his image he can attract this vote. His opponents it’s all show. He doesn’t actually want to really combat and reduce pollution because this measure is way too little to do that.

WERMAN: So what happens next? Will this have to be voted on by the French parliament or will it be a public referendum?

DEBRE: No, no. It won’t be a public referendum. It will be voted in the French parliament. But the system is structured in France in a way that you have a political debate but it’s most likely it will be voted by the parliament because Sarkozy’s controlling the majority in the parliament. There might be some amendments. There might be some changes – maybe in the price – but there won’t be major changes. And it has to be voted by the two houses which is likely to do in the next you know weeks or months. By the end of year it will be sort of implemented.

WERMAN: Guillaume Debre, Washington correspondent for French TV channel TF1 speaking to us from Paris. Thanks Guillaume.

DEBRE: Thank you.

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