And if my own country, France, has failed to set a good example to developing countries by equivocating over the terms of a carbon tax, then perhaps the time has come for its national carbon footprint to be linked with the European trading system for CO2. The sad truth, though, is that the solution of mixing quotas and taxes will not deliver results quickly enough to bring about a genuine and immediate move to low-carbon or even carbon-free economies.
如果我的祖国法国在征收碳税的问题上含糊其辞，不能为发展中国家树立好的榜样，那么也许是时候把国内碳足迹与欧洲二氧化碳交易系统联系在一起。但令人难过的是配额与税收相结合的解决方案无法迅速地产生结果，朝着低碳甚至是无碳经济立即迈出坚实一步的愿望很难变成现实。