Nicholas Sarkozy, the French President, has seen a carbon tax – that would have pushed up prices on fuel and petrol, as well as central heating use – pushed out of the French constitutional court. The rejection of legislation leading to the carbon tax, a major blow in the French government’s plan for green initiatives, also represents the first blow on the come down of the still mostly unsatisfactory deal brokered at the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit.

President Sarkozy, currently away on holiday, was forced to learn the news of his defeat from a distance, and leaving Prime Minister Fillon with a trail of journalists hankering for statements from government on the defeat. Where the rejection of the legislation has been a huge blow, then, the aftermath of the defeat could be still worse, with Sarkozy unable to deflect media attention and calm down the frenzy. Fillon announced that the carbon tax legislation would go back to the constitutional court in amended form but many in the French media have already labelled the events as farce.

The blow will be felt particularly by Sarkozy, who in the run to the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit said, “This carbon tax has one objective – to force you to change your behaviour toward fossil fuels. Without fiscal pressure like this, nothing will change and it will be our children who pay the price”.

Rightly or wrongly, Sarkozy placed his faith in a hard-line mentality, and the failure of the legislation may be an indication that such strict measures will not wash with French citizens. It will certainly not wash, it seems, with the French constitutional court.

The French government has hoped that the carbon tax could bookmark a new sensitivity towards climate change and CO2 emissions that would set an example for other countries; whilst Sarkozy had to fight opposition within his own party to get the carbon tax to constitutional court, it was hoped that the hard battle was done and the passing of the carbon tax as law could significantly reduce CO2 emissions across France and act as a working model for other nations to follow.

Now, Sarkozy will have to look at an amended model.