A French MP has announced his intention to propose a new law to tax tobacco companies to pay for the cost of fighting France's increasing wildfires - his reasoning being that many fires are started accidentally by carelessly dropped cigarette butts.
Yannick Neuder, an MP for the right-wing Les républicains party who briefly served as health minister in 2025, told Le Figaro that he intends to put forward a law to create a new tax to cover the cost of fighting wildfires this summer.
He said: "A cigarette butt thrown out of a car window, and a forest goes up in smoke. This summer, nearly 98,000 hectares burned in our country.
"I am introducing a bill to ensure that tobacco companies - the ones that produce billions of these cigarette butts - finally do their part by making a contribution based on their revenue."
His proposal is a tax of €15 per 1,000 cigarettes sold, paid directly by the manufacturer, adding that the money "will help create and fund a reforestation fund and support our civil protection forces."
