It is about “coherence of the industrial decarbonization policy” in the words of Emmanuel Macron. During his speech on reindustrialization this Thursday afternoon, the President of the Republic indicated that the automotive bonus would now take into account “the carbon footprint” to support what is produced in Europe.
“We must agree to direct our aid and our purchasing policies towards what is good for the climate and for Europe.”
The Head of State mentioned in particular the European mismanagement in the context of the development of the photovoltaic sector. “We must not replicate the mistakes we made, for example in photovoltaics, he insisted. We have massively deployed photovoltaics in Europe and at the same time we have massively destroyed our photovoltaic industry. And thus we have created a dependency on China and made the Chinese industry successful. I don’t want it replicated on drums in particular.”
There are no gifts for Americans and Chinese.
Emmanuel Macron intends to make France “the first European country to reform the criteria for allocating the car bonus as soon as the bill is drawn up to better take into account the carbon footprint of vehicle production and so that public support is directed to these objectives.. The President of the Republic justifies this support directed to batteries and vehicles produced in Europe by a carbon footprint that is “good”.
In a context of tensions around the American IRA, the head of state ruled out any desire for “protectionism” through this measure: “We are not going to close the market but we are not going to use French taxpayers’ money to speed up the European industrialization”. He has also extended this theme to the European level. “When I see the discussions about battery regulations, I don’t want Europe to be able to help batteries that are not made in Europe because neither the Americans nor the Chinese help batteries that are made in Europe,” he explained.
“Why would we be the only space in the world helping what the competitors are doing? We’re not closing the door on them, but even though they have non-cooperative policies, we’re not going to add our helpers as well.” “
Consideration of environmental criteria for public orders
The criteria for the granting of this reformed ecological voucher will be defined “until the end of the year”, according to the Head of State. It will also try to take into account the integration of recycled materials or of biological origin in the production of vehicles, according to the Ministry of Economy. “Therefore, builders will have to justify that they meet these necessary ecological criteria in order to benefit from the ecological bonus,” according to him. Bercy says that he has developed a model to assess the carbon footprint of building a vehicle, “from the battery to the construction of the engine.”
The ecological voucher constitutes financial aid granted to any purchaser or lessee (holder of a rental contract for a period greater than or equal to two years) of an electric or hydrogen vehicle or a combination of both. The purchase cost must be less than 47,000 euros. The State dedicates one billion euros to it.
Emmanuel Macron also said public orders would take into account environmental criteria “for key decarbonisation products” such as wind turbines and heat pumps from July 2024 instead of 2026. “We will favor responsible public order, especially in the most critical markets , solar, wind, heat pumps and others,” he said. “We are going to stop financing non-Europeans with our public contracts and therefore we will do that from July 2024.”
Source: BFM TV
