French Minister for the Green Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher, at the Assemblée Nationale in Paris on October 23, 2024. JULIEN MUGUET FOR LE MONDE
These are essential documents to enable France to accelerate the energy transition and the fight against climate disruption, which will have concrete consequences on the daily lives of French people in terms of transport, housing and food. The government has put out to public consultation, on Monday, November 4, and until December 15, the two tools for steering the country’s climate and energy policy: the third national low-carbon strategy (SNBC) and the third multiannual energy program (PPE). The former looks ahead to 2030, the latter to 2035, and both aim to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
These roadmaps are highly ambitious, but questions remain as to France’s ability to meet them. Their presentation is over a year behind schedule, due to numerous postponements and the dissolution of the Assemblée Nationale in June. In recent months, the French High Council on Climate has repeatedly warned of a “risk of a setback in the ambition of climate policy” if these texts, which had already been the subject of consultations, were not adopted.
“Going faster and further.” The SNBC maps out the path toward a reduction in gross greenhouse gas emissions not by 40% but by 50% between 1990 and 2030, a consequence of Europe’s new climate ambition. Carbon emissions are to be reduced by around 5% per year between 2022 and 2030, compared with an average annual reduction of 2% between 2017 and 2022.
You have 82.33% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.