Environmental Leader

President Jacques Chirac has demanded that the U.S. sign both the Kyoto climate protocol and a future agreement that will take effect when the Kyoto accord runs out in 2012, The New York Times reports. If not, a carbon tax across Europe on U.S. imports could be imposed to try to force compliance.

“A carbon tax is inevitable,” Mr. Chirac said. “If it is European, and I believe it will be European, then it will all the same have a certain influence because it means that all the countries that do not accept the minimum obligations will be obliged to pay.”

In the past, European Union trade chief Peter Mandelson has said he is opposed to such taxes, saying they would be hard to implement and problematic under international trade rules, Reuter’s reports.

France presented this proposal at the United Nations climate talks in Nairobi last November. You can read Chirac’s official remarks from that conference here. 

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