Many of the editorials in today’s papers focus on the introduction of a carbon tax in France after yesterday’s speech by Nicolas Sarkozy during which he laid out the terms of the proposed legislation. Citizens will have to pay 17 euros for every tonne of CO2 emitted. The centre-right paper Le Figaro says when Nicolas Hulot speaks about the carbon tax, everyone is in favour yet when Nicolas Sarkozy does the same, people disagree. Nicolas Hulot is a famous French television presenter who hosted a series on the environment. He is hugely popular and even considered running for the presidency. In the end, he didn’t but he used his popularity to get French politicians to sign an environmental pact. The paper says the time for words is over, action is needed and the tax should be introduced.

The left-leaning Libération is, for once, in agreement with Le Figaro. The paper says that the Ecology Party will inevitably claim the tax doesn’t go far enough while the Socialists will inevitably say the tax is unfair and hits the poorest hardest. However Nicolas Hulot’s environmental tax was signed by all concerned so for the sake of coherence, the tax should be brought in and should be supported by all parties.

Aujourd’hui en France/Le Parisien has a double page interview with the CEO of Total, the French oil giant. Yesterday, the NGO Earth Rights International released a report saying that Total was essentially propping up the Junta in Burma which has earned some 5 billion dollars through contracts with Total. Christophe de Margerie said insists that working in a country with human rights infringements doesn’t mean you condone them. If Total weren’t there, someone else would be so it changes nothing for the human rights situation in the country, he insists.

As for those who say Aung San Suu Kyi would be against Total, Margerie says he’s met her, that he can’t reveal the nature of their discussions but says she has never asked Total to leave Burma and indeed prefers Total to other companies.

Margerie says that, in the end, Total is not an NGO, and can’t be concerned by politics and human rights alone – if that were the case, it could not do business in half of the countries where it is present.

Nelson Piquet, a Formula One driver formerly with the Renault team has revealed a scandal within the Renault camp at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix. Sports paper, l’Equipe, reports that Piquet crashed during the grand prix and he now reveals it was orchestrated so as team mate Fernando Alonso win. Alonso did indeed win that Grand Prix. He said this can be verified in two ways – during each lap he was asking his team which lap he was on so as to crash at the appropriate time. Also Piquet says he accelerated at the moment he crashed – everyone knows you tend to brake when you’re in an accident! Renault is remaining silent for now.

Liberation recounts a pretty hilarious story about a bookseller in France. The confused salesman found a stain on a book dealing with Nicolas Sarkozy. Having wiped the stain away, he noticed that it had re-appeared the next day. It turns out that someone had been coming into his store and spitting on the image of Nicolas Sarkozy. It gets worse. Having decided that the book wouldn’t sell, the bookseller brought it home with him but just a few days later fell ill with the swine flu. His wife, a doctor, had the book analysed only to discover that the traces of saliva on the book contained the swine flu virus!! At a stretch, you could even say that Nicolas Sarkozy indirectly gave this salesman the dreaded virus.