France is not meeting its targets for greenhouse gas emissions. Worse, it encourages the consumption of fossil fuels, reopens coal-fired power stations and will use shale gas, lists the climate spokesperson for Greenpeace France who believes that she should therefore not speak at COP27.
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“France should do everything except pose as a lesson giver”, launches Clément Sénéchal Monday, November 7 on franceinfo. The climate spokesperson for Greenpeace France reacted to the remarks of Emmanuel Macron who affirmed a few hours before his official speech in Sharm El-Sheikh (Egypt) during the COP27, to want “put pressure on rich non-European countries to tell them to pay their share”.
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The position taken by the French president is “absolutely toxic”suggests Clément Sénéchal for whom “France and no country should come and speak at the United Nations platform, simply to blame other countries”. Especially since the country chaired by Emmanuel Macron also has things to be ashamed of. France, proud to have reached an agreement at COP21 in Paris, “refuses to increase its climate objectives when it was an obligation determined in the Paris agreement”recalls the climate spokesperson for Greenpeace France. “France is reducing its greenhouse gas emissions far too slowly to meet its targets.”
Clément Sénéchal takes the example of “Corrective finance plan this year which has encouraged the consumption of fossil fuels with the rebate at the pump. We have a 2023 budget which will be twice as unfavorable to the environment as the previous budget. We have reopened coal-fired power stations on the territory. We are planning a floating terminal in Le Havre which will bring in shale gas… France should do everything, except pose as a lesson giver”.
But France, of course, is not the only one to contradict its promises made in 2015 during COP21. What causes a “form of impatience and anger” within Greenpeace against rich countries. “Year after year, the commitments put on the table for the moment take us to +10.5% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, when they should be lowered by 45%. We see subsidies for fossil fuels which are constantly increasing and countries like France still continue to support these energies are the first responsible for global warming”.