Two days after having convened an ecological planning council at the Elysée, the President of the Republic underlined, on Saturday January 28, that France was going to have to “double the rate of effort” in favor of reducing carbon emissions to reach its objectives in 2030. “Today, we are not there. And if we don’t change things, we won’t make it.”explains the Head of State in a video published on social networks, also mentioning several sectoral measures.
Our CO2 emissions are falling. But not fast enough. To succeed, we must double our efforts. It will be difficult… https://t.co/EUO8VKQEal
“If we want to reach our 2030 target, we must go to 270 million tonnes of CO2 issuedrecalls Emmanuel Macron, which means that it is necessary, between now and 2030, to reduce by 140 million tonnes (…), which means that we simply have to double the rate of effort compared to what we have done in the last five years. »
“In the past five years, we have been twice as fast as before”, argues the president, criticized throughout his first term for his action deemed insufficient against the climate crisis. He cites past emissions, since 2017, of 434 to 410 million tonnes of CO2 per year. The president then recalls in his message the sites opened by major sectors, from transport – the first source of emissions with 30% – to waste (3%) via agriculture (19%), industry (19%) , building (18%) and energy (10%).
“Mobilize the right funding”
Regarding transportation, “the most effective thing”, according to him, is to continue to electrify the fleet of private vehicles. He judges that his strategy is the right one, with the conversion bonus and the ecological bonus. Emmanuel Macron says he has asked the government to now intensify efforts to to produce vehicles [électriques] on [leur] entire floor ». Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne is also responsible for announcing measures on public transport infrastructure in February.
For agriculture, “we must go much further, much harder to reduce our emissions”, he urges, saying he asked for a plan to be finalized in June. This will have to be articulated with a future law in favor of the installation of young farmers.
“I won’t hide from you that there is a lot, a lot, a lot of work. It’s not a discovery, but now we’re getting into the hard part, we have to mobilize the right funding. Public money will be needed, but private money is also needed. »
Emmanuel Macron organized a national planning council at the Elysée on Thursday, focused on climate issues. Surrounded by his prime minister, Elisabeth Borne, and a dozen ministers, including Christophe Béchu (ecological transition), Agnès Pannier-Runacher (energy transition), Bruno Le Maire (economy) and Gabriel Attal (public accounts), the President of the Republic wanted to appear as the conductor of the fight against climate change.
The initial purpose of this closed session was to verify that all sectors – energy, transport, housing, agriculture, industry – were well on the way to a 50% reduction in (gross) greenhouse gas emissions at the 2030 horizon, which should be included in the next energy-climate law, in accordance with the European objective. This advice also had political significance for Mr. Macron who was to speak about it himself in the aforementioned and already recorded video.
Since the beginning of the year, the President of the Republic has created a stir on this crucial issue. During his vows to the French on December 31, a short sentence – “Who could have predicted (…) the climate crisis with spectacular effects? – has led to many reactions within an increasingly alert scientific community.