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Civic leader Scott Nelson says he is as worried as anyone about global warming, but that does not make him happy to be one of the first North Americans to pay a carbon tax to curb climate change.

Nelson, mayor of Williams Lake, British Columbia, says record high energy prices mean that the levy, for all its good intentions, could not come at a worst time for residents in his community, a lumber and ranching town about 525 km (340 miles) north of Vancouver.

“The last thing they need now is a tax on top of these soaring prices to add insult to injury,” said Nelson, predicting that a taxpayer revolt will eventually scuttle the new tax, which takes effect on July 1.

Carbon taxes already exist in Europe. But the tax on fossil fuels will make the Pacific province of British Columbia the first North American jurisdiction to bring in a broad-based levy designed to cut emissions of the greenhouse gases that are blamed for global warming.

The provincial government unveiled the tax in February, calling it a key element in a pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 33 percent by 2020.

The tax applies to nearly all fossil fuels, including gasoline and home heating fuel, starting at C$10 per tonne of carbon emissions in 2008 and increasing by C$5 a tonne annually for the next four years.

For drivers that will mean an additional 2.41 Canadian cents on a liter of gasoline (about 9.13 cents per U.S. gallon) starting on Tuesday. The current gas price in Vancouver, British Columbia’s biggest city, is around C$1.40 a liter.

The government says the tax is designed to reduce carbon use, and not generate new revenue. It is cutting other taxes to offset the carbon tax take, and mailing a one-time C$100 rebate out to each British Columbia resident this week.

European airlines complained Friday that new EU rules on carbon dioxide emissions will cost them 4.8 billion euros (7.6 billion dollars) a year and threaten their future.

Under an agreement reached Thursday, the European Union will set quotas on carbon dioxide, the main gas that causes global warming, on all airlines — those from Europe and abroad — from 2012.

They would then have to pay for these permits to pollute from 2013.

“This decision is going to cost us 4.8 billion euros a year,” said Francoise Herbert, spokeswoman at the Association of European Airlines (AEA), which represents 33 firms including Air France-KLM, British Airways and Lufthansa.

“It all has to be compared with the 3.7 billion euros profit that our companies made in 2007, which was a very good year. And 2008 is looking quite different with the hike in fuel prices,” she said.

The AEA believes the quota system is essentially a tax that will encourage foreign airlines to avoid the 27 nation EU whenever possible.

“Companies flying from New York to Hong Kong will transit by Dubai rather than Frankfurt,” Herbert said. “European airports are likely to suffer.”

Carbon dioxide emissions from aircraft in Europe are to be limited in 2012 to 97 percent of their levels in 2005, dropping further to 95 percent by 2020, under the EU agreement.