Experts from the High Climate Council (HCC) put pressure on the new government on Friday, calling for a “clear direction” and criticizing budget cuts that “damage confidence” in the climate transition.
“When there are cancellations of credits, the visibility of the action is damaged and therefore it seems counterproductive to us,” declared the president of the independent organization, Jean-François Soussana, in a press conference.
This position comes at a time when Michel Barnier’s government seeks to reduce a growing public deficit. The previous government announced savings of 10 billion euros in February, including 2 billion euros less for “ecology, sustainable development and mobility” programs.
Furthermore, the preparatory letters of the ceiling for the draft 2025 budget suggest that new credits allocated to the Green Fund, the government program aimed at accelerating the ecological transition in local communities, will be reduced by almost €1.5 billion .
Between 60 and 70 billion annual investments
“To achieve carbon neutrality, it is necessary to allocate multi-annual public and private funds estimated at between 60,000 and 70,000 million euros for additional annual investments between now and 2030, while suspending subsidies for fossil fuels,” underlines the HCC in the public version of its annual report.
“The recent cancellations of credits and the maintenance of these subsidies harm confidence in the climate transition,” estimates the HCC, which brings together a panel of experts (in climatology, economics, agronomy, etc.) in charge of evaluating public action by the weather. The HCC also shows once again its impatience, considering the adoption of laws and planning documents in the field of energy and climate “urgent”.
He thus cites the new national low carbon strategy (SNBC), the third national plan for adaptation to climate change (PNACC-3) and the multiannual energy programming (PPE).
“And this requires the adoption of a certain number of strategic texts, a multi-year budget, well-defined action plans and an emphasis on what is done, particularly on adaptation,” summarized the agronomist, who participated for more than 20 years in IPCC reports.
Restore forests and soils
The HCC also welcomes the decrease in gross greenhouse gas emissions in France, but is concerned about the low absorption of CO2 in natural sinks, such as forests. “France’s second carbon budget (2019-2023) will probably not be respected due to the collapse of the forest carbon sink”, degraded by global warming, reminds the HCC, underlining the importance of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
France has respected the roadmap that was set for this period in terms of gross emissions, without taking into account the absorption of CO2 by forests and soils. But taking into account the contribution of carbon sinks, the targets should not be met, according to the HCC, which estimates the excess at 15 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent.
In addition to this issue, experts still warn of a series of “weaknesses” in the French trajectory: insufficient visibility of the deployment of renewable and nuclear energy, “lack of control of mobility demand”, low pace of efficient renewals of the buildings and insufficient agricultural transition.
Source: BFM TV
