France faces its crises

HIBAPRESS-RABAT

France continues to struggle with its multiple crises, which unfold every day and put the Elysée in difficult situations.

This is because the results of the last European elections and the political crisis in France are jeopardizing climate ambitions, with potentially disastrous consequences for the “Green Deal” and the 2030 objectives.

It should be recalled that on 9 June, the European elections saw the far right achieve a historic score and the crumbling of centrist and environmentalist groups. In the crosshairs, a future European Parliament that will be less pro-climate, which creates a double risk of unravelling the “Green Deal” adopted during the previous term and of not achieving the 2030 climate objectives.

This risk of a breakdown in climate ambitions also exists in France, which has been plunged into a political crisis since Emmanuel Macron announced the dissolution of the National Assembly and a return to the polls for early legislative elections.

Coincidence of calendars, CITEPA, the organization in charge of the national inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, has just published its most up-to-date data in mid-June. We discover a good result for 2023, with national emissions down 5.8% compared to 2022.

However, to reach 268 million tonnes (Mt) of CO2 equivalent in 2030, the climate objective in line with the commitments under the Green Deal, requires doubling the rate of reduction between 2023 and 2030.

A first difficulty is that this objective has not yet been integrated into French law. For political reasons, the French government has not presented to Parliament the energy-climate bill that should have been debated and adopted in July 2023.