In a joint letter to European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi and French President Nicolas Sarkozy called to the European Commission for the introduction of a carbon tax levied on goods imported from countries with less stringent climate policies. Despite the opposition of the EC and the scepticisms of some big member states like Germany, France, which is the frontrunner of a European carbon tariff, is working hard to get new countries in on the idea, underlining the risk of carbon leakage that the stringent European reduction target for 2020 would entail.

Climate Policy News

• This news is extracted from the Climate Policy News : a CMCC weekly column that summarises the latest news on international climate change agreements, the updates on the carbon market and the energy and technology updates in the realm of climate change. Go to the web page and see all previous issues since March 2007.
• This week: EU countries stop recycled CER trade; Italy joins France on carbon tariff; Kerry reignites debate on US climate bill; UNDP: China should get ready for carbon
  trading; Mexico: developing countries face
  monitoring issues; the carbon market this week – Download the April 12-18, 2010 Newsletter [Pdf 43 Kb]