EU Climate Chief Calls for Energy Tax

The European Union's top climate official called for an energy tax to boost the bloc's climate protection efforts.

EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard told Monday's Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung that "energy taxes are among the instruments we should use for climate protection in the EU, because that's how energy consumption is reduced."

Denmark's Hedegaard, who led the U.N. climate negotiations in Copenhagen last year, said instead of imposing high work-related taxes, which threaten European companies competing with foreign firms "it would be much smarter to install a system that includes a top tax rate for areas threatening the common good, such as a excessive energy consumption".'

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