France's Constitutional Court has disallowed draft legislation imposing tax on CO2 emissions. The judges ruled there were too many exemptions to the law.

Oil refineries would have been exempt from having to pay and those in the farming and fishing sectors were to have received compensation to offset the tax. The court ruled these and other exemptions were unfair.

The new tax was scheduled to be introduced on 1 January and its failure deals a major blow to President Nicholas Sarkozy's policy on CO2 reduction. The French government is to put forward new proposals on the issue in January.

photo ANP