“Shift gears” to fight global warming. Postponed in July due to the unrest, the Government’s “ecological planning” roadmap was presented this Monday by the President of the Republic himself.
Emmanuel Macron explained how he plans to distribute the additional 7 billion euros promised for the ecological transition to achieve the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% between now and 2030.
Metropolitan RER, coal output, heat pumps… find out what to remember from this speech by the Head of State.
• Build a “French-style” ecology
At the beginning of his speech, Emmanuel Macron highlighted his desire to “build a French-style ecology” that responds to various challenges, such as climate change and the “collapse of biodiversity.”
To this end, his government has planned “several dozen actions that will reduce CO2 emissions.” They will be complemented by a “biodiversity strategy” in October and an “adaptation plan” in December.
According to him, in the last five years France has reduced its CO2 emissions twice as fast as before.
“We’ve come halfway since the 1990s,” he said. The goal now: reduce CO2 emissions by 5% annually.
• Coal exit by 2027
France will abandon coal in 2027, converting its last two plants, as declared on Sunday by President Emmanuel Macron, who, on the other hand, does not want to ban gas boilers as part of ecological planning.
This ambition is part of the decarbonization project. Emmanuel Macron had already promised to close all power plants fired by coal, an extremely climate-damaging fuel, before the end of his five-year term.
• Massively develop hydrogen
“To facilitate the exit from fossil fuels, we must massively develop hydrogen,” commented the president.
HE However, the limits of this energy are very numerous.starting with the fact that it is currently produced from fossil natural gas.
• 13 metropolitan RER projects
As announced at the beginning of summer, according to the president, the metropolitan RER development project is moving forward. “It is an urban and also industrial project,” he boasted, mentioning that it would cost 10,000 million euros.
13 projects have already been selected and 700 million from the State have been committed. “We will have plans for the deployment of these lines as early as October,” the president said.
• Electric cars and the “battery valley”
In the same transport sector, the Head of State then mentioned support for the development of electric vehicles. Starting in November, a leasing system at 100 euros will be announced for several tens of thousands of models. The goal was set to produce “at least one million electric cars” in France by 2027
Emmanuel Macron also returned to setting up a battery factory in Dunkirk and Douai.
“This is what we call the battery valley” that allows us to have “a green and competitive industry.”
• Green industry to “regain control”
The government wants to “triple the production of heat pumps by 2027”, with the aim of producing one million heat pumps. 30,000 installers will be trained.
The objective is to encourage the French to equip themselves with them, while gas boilers will continue to be authorized in old homes, unlike new ones.
A green industry bill will be presented in October. Its objective will be to “regain control of the price of our electricity,” said Emmanuel Macron.
While a battle of figures pits the renationalized company EDF and the State over the future regulation of electricity, the president wants prices that are “compatible” with the demands of “competitiveness” and that give “visibility to both homes and our industrial”.
• An “accessible ecology” on glyphosate
Emmanuel Macron defended “a fair and accessible ecology”, raising in particular the issue of glyphosate.
“We cannot leave farmers without a solution,” explained the Head of State, who has set the goal of a 30% reduction in the use of this highly questioned pesticide.
The use of glyphosate could be renewed over the next 10 years in the European Union.
• Nuclear energy as the spearhead of the ecological transition
At the end of the speech, the president defended nuclear energy, without which “there is no possible strategy” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“All scientists tell us that there is no strategy to reduce (greenhouse gas) emissions without nuclear energy,” said Emmanuel Macron.
Environmentalists, for their part, are concerned about nuclear waste with a very long useful life.
Source: BFM TV
