French President Emmanuel Macron has promised an ecological transition plan to the tune of €50 billion if he is re-elected to lead the country in an election in April. EURACTIV France reports.
Following the Belfort speech on 10 February, which outlined France’s “energy destiny”, Macron returned to several of his announcements during a presentation of his programme at a press conference on 17 March.
“The production strategy that I wish to implement for the nation is essentially based on three main points: to continue investments aimed at reducing consumption, to deploy massively renewable energies, based on solar energy, offshore wind power and onshore wind power, (…) and to produce nuclear power with the immediate implementation of a new reactor construction plan,” said Macron.
To finance part of the measures of this ecological transition plan, Macron wants to set aside €50 billion, as explained by MP Jean-Charles Colas-Roy of Macron’s La République en Marche (LREM) party.
“We have decided to devote €10 billion per year to the ecological transition, which makes €50 billion over the entire five-year period,” said Colas-Roy.
“This funding will be used to pursue the renovation of buildings, conversion bonuses, support for district heating systems, tree planting, and support for the settlement of new agricultural holdings,” he added.
The budget for financing energy production, which includes renewables and nuclear, was not specified, however.
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Pragmatism
On renewable energies, the French president wants to move forward quickly. In Belfort, he already pledged “the lifting of regulatory barriers as long as projects are accepted locally”.
Macron also wishes to give more powers and resources to the local level, including “the possibility of transferring calls for tender on renewable energy to the regional authorities”, said Colas-Roy, who was invited by the non-profit organisation Equilibre des Energies on Tuesday (22 March) to discuss Macron’s programme.
Speaking on behalf of the French leader, the MP also mentioned an emergency law for renewable energies.
“Of course, we must take into consideration all the appeals that can be made, but we must also speed up the projects,” he insisted. “It is no longer possible that a project, for instance of offshore wind turbines, takes twelve or fifteen years to develop in France, while it takes seven years in Germany,” he said.
This law could facilitate the implementation of several of Macron’s announcements, namely the tenfold increase in solar energy capacity by 2050, the creation of around fifty offshore wind farms, and the doubling of onshore wind energy capacity.
Colas-Roy also stressed the importance of complementarity between energy sources in order to better manage peak demand. In addition to working on flexibility and load management, Macron is counting on the development of heating networks and biogas.
In Belfort, he confirmed the aim of increasing renewable gas consumption to 10% by 2030 – also featured in the Energy Transition Law of 2015.
The complementarity of energy sources also involves a renewed investment in nuclear power.
Consistent with his policy plan, Macron confirmed on 17 March the construction of six new EPR 2 type nuclear reactors, the possible construction of eight others, and the extension of existing reactors with the agreement of the nuclear safety authority – as already announced on 10 February.
To extend existing reactors, it would be necessary to “change the law, since [at present, we are] on the way to closing 14 reactors between 2028 and 2035”, said Colas-Roy, who also pointed to the investments in new nuclear power like small modular reactors (SMRs).
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Energy sobriety on all fronts
In his 17 March speech, Macron also announced his strategy to reduce consumption.
“We will implement a strategy to consume less by changing behaviour, building on what we have been able to do in recent years”, for example through the thermal renovation of buildings, he said.
“The objective I have set for the next five years is to renovate at least 700,000 homes per year,” the outgoing president added.
Energy efficiency and sobriety will also be achieved through actions in the field of electric mobility, circular economy, and decarbonisation of industries.
Here, our lifestyles will be rethought through a “transition of practices”, Macron said on 17 March. “We have a strategy that is coherent and that allows us to reduce our emissions in energy production and consumption,” he added.
Macron’s energy manifesto includes other measures, like ecological transition contracts to support industries in reducing their energy consumption and carbon emissions. It also features regulating the pay of CEOs, depending on how companies meet environmental and social objectives.
Macron presents France's long-term 'nuclear-heavy' energy plan
Multiplying solar energy capacity tenfold, deploying around fifty offshore wind farms and building six EPR 2 nuclear reactors. These are all part of France’s long-term energy plan President Emmanuel Macron detailed on Thursday (10 February)
[Edited by Frédéric Simon/Daniel Eck/Zoran Radosavljevic]
Source: euractiv.com
