“We, MPs from various political groups, are waiting for a democratic debate that meets the challenge of the century”

2023-09-24 07:00:08

Summer 2023 is coming to an end. It was the hottest ever recorded according to the European Copernicus Observatory. It has had an impact on us all, particularly because of the repetition of extreme climatic events, a known manifestation of climate change. It has left many families around the world in mourning. And the month of September has not said its last word…

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We therefore have a major responsibility to act against the challenge of the century, that of the battle against global warming. For this, it is essential to adopt a law that meets the challenges, after having democratically debated the paths to take, the measures to implement to enhance the ambition which is ours and which we owe to our fellow citizens.

In Parliament, we do not all defend the same ambitions and solutions but we agree on one thing in common: the need to be able to debate the climate and energy future of our country. We therefore call on the government to include the energy and climate programming law on the parliamentary agenda before the end of 2023.

New situation

In 2019, on the occasion of the law relating to energy and climatet, Parliament decided that before July 1, 2023, a law must be presented to “determine the objectives and set the action priorities of the national energy policy to respond to the ecological and climatic emergency”. This law is still awaited even though it is decisive in specifying several key elements for our climate future.

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First and foremost, our goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Since 2019, a lot has changed. The European Union (EU) has increased its emissions reduction targets by 2030 by proposing the “Fit for 55” package. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls on rich countries to advance carbon neutrality goals “as close as possible to 2040”.

Several studies have insisted on the need to make most of the efforts in the coming years. This is the case of the European Union Scientific Council on Climate Change, which noted that the EU must reduce its emissions by 90% to 95% by 2040 if it wants to achieve its carbon neutrality objective in 2050. This is also the case for France: data from the Climate Analytics research center reveals that more than 80% of emissions reductions must be achieved by 2035 to achieve carbon neutrality.

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