For the Minister of Ecological Transition, it is necessary to “double the pace” of the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The government will detail its plan on Wednesday July 5.
The government will present its plan on Wednesday July 5 for “reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 140 million tonnes by 2030“, announced Wednesday June 28 on franceinfo Christophe Béchu, the Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Cohesion of the Territories, while the fifth annual report of the High Council for the Climate affirmed that France is not yet ready to make in the face of climatic hazards and must move faster to reduce its CO2 emissions.
“Our country and our continent are in decline, not at the right pace. We gotta double this beat“, recognizes Christophe Béchu. On Wednesday, the government will explain “how to go from 404 million tonnes to 270, specifying, sector by sector, the height of the step and the levers on which we will act“, specifies the minister.
franceinfo: Have you been slow to take into account the warnings from scientists?
Christophe Bechu : I really don’t think you can say that. Because this year 2022 led us, at the very beginning of the year, to explain that we had to prepare our country by accelerating in terms of reducing emissions. And it will be presented next Wednesday at the Elysée Palace as part of the first Ecological Planning Council which will explain how we must still reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 140 million tonnes by 2030.
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Above all, we launched a plan to adapt to a warming France, since the problem of global warming is not just in one country. Our country and our continent are in decline, not at the right pace. We need to double this rate, but in a global context where emissions continue to increase and where we must therefore at the same time adapt and ensure that decarbonization is accelerated.
What will the Ecological Planning Council bring to the Elysée next Wednesday as an answer on the trajectory of reducing emissions by 2030? It took 32 years to reduce its CO2 emissions by 25%. We have eight years left to double the efforts.
It is indeed colossal. These last four years have made it possible to maintain our carbon budgets in geopolitical, health and specific contexts. The whole issue, for the first time, is that we are going to explain how we are going to go from 404 million tonnes to 270, specifying, sector by sector, the height of the step and the levers on which we are going to act . This will be the first completely transparent exercise that will show how, domain by domain, we get there.
“The rate of decline in emissions is not the same everywhere. Transport accounts for 30% of emissions. We therefore have a lot of effort to make on transport.”
Christophe Bechuat franceinfo
We have other areas, such as construction or industry, on which we already have slopes that are well oriented but on which we must continue to accelerate. And in all these areas, there are actions opposite. Some have already been announced. I am thinking of transport: the 100 billion euro plan presented a few weeks ago by the Prime Minister to boost rail. And there is another crucial subject on which we have concerns, which is the carbon sink. The ‘one billion trees’ plan, criticized by some and which was announced by the President of the Republic in October, is the translation of this need to replant a forest to store more.
All of this is very expensive. Electric cars, efforts in transport, energy renovation of housing are expensive. How to avoid the social injustice effect?
This is at the heart of the government’s strategy, both to define a financing key that is credible and a transition that is fair and inclusive. Otherwise, it doesn’t work. These are additional billions of euros which, within the framework of the budget which will be presented in October, will translate these elements. Today, for electric cars, we have premiums that are higher for low-income households, which were further increased in the course of last year. This logic will, for example, lead us to move towards zero remaining dependent on support for those who embark on the thermal renovation of their homes, the most modest. And on an increase in the credits devoted to it, on a structuring of the sector. In each action, there will be both the objectives in terms of climate and the means in terms of euros.