FRANCE: CARBON TAX RULED UNCONSTITUTIONAL

 Nicolas Sarkozy’s dreams of putting France on the frontline of the fight against global warming are in disarray, after his flagship carbon tax was ruled unconstitutional two days before it was due to come into effect.  In an unexpected and embarrassing blow, the court responsible for ensuring the validity of French legislation rejected the reform as ineffective and unfair.  It ruled that rather than being the revolutionary measure Mr. Sarkozy promised, the tax would have let off many industrial polluters, while placing a disproportionately heavy burden on ordinary households. INDIA SET TO LEAD EFFORT FOR BINDING BIODIVERSITY TREATY  India is set to take the lead in pushing for a single legally binding treaty for access to and benefit sharing of biological resources at the 10th Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to be held at Nagoya, Japan, in October.  The CBD was one of the key agreements adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. 
1. Conservation of biological diversity.

2. sustainable use of its component and
3. Fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of generic resources. The convention, while reaffirming the sovereign rights of nations over their biological resources, established three main goals.