“For the first time, the State is really on board with public financing of the ecological transition”

2023-09-26 16:00:05

After years of debate on the need to make the ecological transition or not, we have moved to a new stage: no longer that of why, but that of “how”. How can we collectively organize on a large scale and at the speed dictated by the urgency of the climate crisis and the collapse of biodiversity the transition to carbon neutrality in less than a generation?

To achieve such a transformation of our economy, we need to plan for change. And this is what we are deploying in France and Europe.

First of all, planning the new rules of the game is an essential element to give visibility to companies in their investments and to households in their choices, in terms of car or real estate acquisitions, for example. This is the heart of the “normative” side of planning, which is inseparably French and European. The examples are numerous: progressive ban on the rental of thermal strainers classified G, then F; organization of the transition to zero CO2 emission road mobility with the end, in Europe, of the sale of thermal cars in 2035, or the compulsory incorporation of non-fossil fuels for all flights departing from Europe. These rules are essential to set the course and allow economic players to organize their investments. It is precisely to cover the entire economy and the multiple issues of the transition that the European Green Deal includes seventy-five laws!

A climate programming law

The normative aspect is essential, but, alone, it in no way guarantees the success of the transition. Because planning must of course be financed and this is the second key element. Hence the importance of the 7 billion euros of additional budgetary appropriations in the 2024 budget which bring us to a total of 40 billion euros recalled by the President of the Republic in his recent interventions, putting us at the right level to meet the objectives set in particular by the report by Jean Pisani-Ferry and Selma Mahfouz.

Indeed, the 66 billion euros mentioned in this report cover all the additional public and private investments necessary in the economy over a year. Around two thirds of this green overinvestment must come from the private sector (businesses and households) and a third from the public (around twenty billion euros), shared between the State, local authorities, the Caisse des Dépôts, etc.

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