Updated

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is under fire from his own party, as well as environmentalists, for his desire to tap a climate-change skeptic for a high government post, London's Financial Times reports.

Sarkozy wants to bring Claude Allègre, a former advocate of the theory of man-made climate change who now says global warming is not really caused by human activity, into his cabinet to head the super-ministry of industry and innovation.

Putting Allègre in charge of science and innovation would be like "giving the finger to scientists", says French environmental activist Nicolas Hulot.

And former center-right Prime Minister Alain Juppé said the appointment of Allègre, a Socialist, would give a "terribly bad signal," according to the Financial Times.

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