Living Car Free - France: a step in the right direction

I like Sarkozy's plan to halt or reduce new motorways. It seems like most of the proposal should make it through the French parliament, too.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7062577.stm

Sarkozy details green France plan

President Sarkozy (left) with Nobel prizewinner and ex-US Vice President Al Gore
Eco-activist and former US Vice President Al Gore (right) attended
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for taxes to target polluters and said French use of pesticides should be halved.

He also said the commercial planting of genetically-modified (GM) crops would be suspended in France.

Mr Sarkozy was speaking at the end of a national conference on the environment.

He promised total transparency on environmental issues, including nuclear energy, and vowed to change transport policy to prioritise non-road traffic.

"We need to profoundly revise all of our taxes and charges. The aim is to tax pollution - notably fossil fuels - more, and tax work less," Mr Sarkozy said.

French plutonium fuel containers
The nuclear industry dominates French electricity production
He called on the European Union to study in the next six months "the possibility of taxing imports from countries that do not respect the Kyoto Protocol" - the international agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

The conference was attended by former US Vice President Al Gore, who won the Nobel Peace Prize this year for his work in highlighting the impact of climate change.

A leading Kenyan environmentalist and previous Nobel winner, Wangari Maathai, and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso also participated.

The conference failed to produce agreement on the future role of nuclear power, which accounts for 80% of the electricity generated in France, the AFP news agency reports.

Mr Sarkozy said France would freeze the building of new motorways and airports to try to tackle pollution from transport, which is responsible for at least quarter of French CO2 gas emissions.

Instead there would be more investment in the French rail network to try to shift freight traffic away from the roads.

Mr Sarkozy said France would not plant pest-resistant GM crops until further studies were carried out.

The EU has approved cultivation of a GM variety of maize developed by the US biotech firm Monsanto, but it has restricted other GM seeds and foods, in contrast with the US.

Well, until now I thought he was a French version of Bush. Well, maybe this is what the French version of Bush looks like.

I was expecting yet another link to the Paris bike rental thingy. So this was a pleasant surprise.

I like the quote

"The aim is to tax pollution - notably fossil fuels - more, and tax work less,"

what a concept! pay for what you use?? wow! :rolleyes:

Well, until now I thought he was a French version of Bush. Well, maybe this is what the French version of Bush looks like.
Me, too. Sarkozy sounded like a French Ronald Reagan or something. Then I read an article in the New Yorker and was kind of amazed at what I read:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/27/070827fa_fact_gopnik

quote:"To understand Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been President of France for three intense months, it helps to know the story of the human bomb. “It was in 1993, when Sarkozy was the mayor of Neuilly,” Philippe Labro, the novelist and talk-show host, recalled over lunch a week or so after Sarkozy received his first Bastille Day salute as President. (Neuilly is a small leafy suburb of Paris.) “A psychotic took over a nursery school. He strapped explosives to his body, and he held the children hostage. He called himself H.B., the human bomb. He had an incoherent set of demands—a true lunatic—and the police surrounded the place. Sarkozy went into the school, completely alone, and began to talk to the human bomb. He engaged him in conversation: what did he want, what were his problems, could he solve them? But first he had to let the children go. Well, half an hour later, out comes Nicolas with children in his arms and all around him. Later, of course, the police went in and shot the human bomb dead.” He shrugged. The French police are not known for their gentle touch with psychos."

Pretty amazing story to my mind... this guy's no Ronald Reagan...

“A psychotic took over a nursery school. He strapped explosives to his body, and he held the children hostage. He called himself H.B., the human bomb. He had an incoherent set of demands—a true lunatic—and the police surrounded the place. Sarkozy went into the school, completely alone, and began to talk to the human bomb. He engaged him in conversation: what did he want, what were his problems, could he solve them? But first he had to let the children go. Well, half an hour later, out comes Nicolas with children in his arms and all around him. Later, of course, the police went in and shot the human bomb dead.”

Amazing story. In an unrelated development, in two weeks Sarkozy will be arriving in Washington for talks with President Bush.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/26/europe/EU-GEN-France-US-Sarkozy.php

Amazing story. In an unrelated development, in two weeks Sarkozy will be arriving in Washington for talks with President Bush.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/26/europe/EU-GEN-France-US-Sarkozy.php
This related URL might be of interest to the car free people involved in their community's urban design.
It seems to be from the car dependent perspective but talks about bike lockers in Chicago and public transit.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/18/arts/rmondesign25.php?page=1