French Carbon-Tax Revolt Scores Historic Victory

Having been expected to attend COP24 in Poland on Monday, French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe canceled his visit and instead held an increasing number of meetings with French MPs and ministers.

This resulted in a decision to back down on the French carbon tax, which has been criticized by the ‘yellow vests’ since the movement started a month ago. —EurActiv, 4 December 2018

Benjamin Cauchy, a leader of the “free yellow vests”, has welcomed the government’s announcement of a moratorium on the carbon tax as a first step, but said that the demands of the protest movement are much wider called for continued, peaceful protests next Saturday. “This is only a first step. The French do not wish to have just crumbs, like sparrows at the edge of a window in the middle of winter. We want the whole baguette. We are preparing for a political transition much more than an ecological transition,” the activist said. —France Inter, 4 December 2018

France’s violent Yellow Vest protests are now about many domestic concerns, but it’s no accident that the trigger was a fuel-tax hike. Nothing reveals the disconnect between ordinary voters and an aloof political class more than carbon taxation. After decades of global conferences, forests of reports, dire television documentaries, celebrity appeals, school-curriculum overhauls and media bludgeoning, voters don’t believe that climate change justifies policies that would raise their cost of living and hurt the economy. —The Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal, 4 December 2018

As things stand today, there is clearly no global consensus on a climate catastrophe, or on how the world should tackle it. We think the UN should sober up. It is its responsibility to review its climate agenda and change the message. If by the end of the Katowice summit on December 14, there is still no consensus on a plan of action, the UN should pull the plug on its climate agenda. —Editorial, The Manila Times, 3 December 2018