Two days after French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s crushing defeat in regional elections, he has called off his plan to impose a carbon tax on the French populace.  Sarkozy’s Gaullist party lost every region of France with the sole exception of Reunion, an island in the Indian Ocean, and Alsace, a Gaullist stronghold.

Before the elections, Sarkozy had vowed to “save the human race” from climate change through his carbon tax.  After the elections, he decided to save himself and his administration by heeding the public’s sentiment on carbon taxes, which were opposed by two-thirds of the public. He had promised to bring in carbon taxes by July.

His decision didn’t sit well with everyone. “I am in despair that eco-skepticism has prevailed,” stated Chantal Jouanno, France’s environment secretary.

Lawrence Solomon, Financial Post, March 23, 2010