It’s necessary “read this report and heed the overwhelmingly clear call for immediate and ambitious action across all sectors.” Following the publication of the third part of the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), on April 4, one of the authors called on the candidates for the presidential election to take into account the conclusions of the document. Devoted to the study of the solutions to be brought to the climate crisis, it indeed constitutes a solid working basis for the politicians who wish to work effectively for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
>> What to remember from the third part of the IPCC report
Work base that the two candidates qualified for the second round claim to have peeled.“I read the IPCC summary”said Marine Le Pen, questioned by a listener from France Inter after the publication. “We heard the message from the world’s top scientists two weeks ago”, said Emmanuel Macron during a meeting on Saturday in Marseille. But what are the two contenders for the Elysée going to do with the conclusions set out there?
Assuring to be challenged by the release of this report, but also by “the fairly high vote in the first round in favor of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, which partly incorporates concerns about climate issues”Emmanuel Macron’s team says it wants “go faster and further on these subjects”. The president-candidate also repeated, on April 13 on France 2, to want “enrich [son projet]intensify it, invest more in all of these subjects”.
Policies implemented so far “are not sufficiently aligned with the orientations of the National Low Carbon Strategy”the French roadmap for limiting global warming to 2 or even 1.5°C, deplores Yamina Saheb, co-author of the last part of the IPCC. “Due to the delay accumulated by France, the current rate of annual reduction will have to practically double, to reach at least 3% from 2021 (-13 megatons CO2 equivalent) and 3.3% on average over the period 2024-2028″, she adds. There is therefore an urgent need to act, as the latest IPCC report has also underlined. Jean-Charles Colas-Roy, ecological transition relay for Emmanuel Macron’s team, claims to have heard the message.
“We must accelerate to respect the commitments made during the Paris agreement. During the five-year term, we have doubled the rate of reduction in emissions. We know that we must double again in the next mandate.”
Jean-Charles Colas-Roy, member of Emmanuel Macron’s teamat franceinfo
For Emmanuel Macron’s team, this notably involves “the transition from a linear economy – extract, produce, consume, throw away – to circular – extract less, produce better, consume differently, recycle efficiently“. The candidate has set itself the goal of developing nuclear and renewables to achieve decarbonization of energy production. Beware of “dependency on technologies requiring high initial investments (e.g. nuclear)”can we read in the summary of the IPCC report (in English)which highlights the risks associated with the use of infrastructure that is too resource-intensive.
On the other messages delivered by the IPCC, Emmanuel Macron’s team says it recognizes the importance of “sobriety”which she describes as “consumption optimization”. A description that is on the wrong track, judges Yamina Saheb. This vision, “it’s efficiency, not sobriety”she analyzes, citing the definition given by the IPCC: “the set of daily measures and practices that avoid the demand for energy, materials, land and water”.
The team intends to respond to the increased need for financing for the ecological transition by mobilizing a “new investment of 10 billion euros per year”. Jean-Charles Colas-Roy believes that the program can also evolve in terms of raising public awareness of these issues. “Environmental labeling is important, we also want to develop a product repairability index and massively train our fellow citizens with a view to professional retraining in these new sectors.”
For her part, Marine Le Pen clearly distanced herself from the IPCC on April 13 during a press conference devoted to foreign policy. “A suffocating flaw for the French diplomatic tool is to focus on alleged major global issues defined by such and such a UN agency, for example, by the IPCCshe said. French diplomacy must be oriented not towards so-called major global issues (…) environmental, but towards the protection and promotion of the interests of France, whatever they are in the world.
Something to make Yamina Saheb react: “The climate crisis is not a ‘so-called major global issue’. Unfortunately, it is very real and can only be solved through international collaboration, retorts the scientist member of the institution. The impact of greenhouse gas emissions will not stop at our administrative borders, nor those of our close neighbours.”
Marine Le Pen’s team deplores as well as “the IPCC report makes no criticism of the international economic system, of globalization”which could be settled by “the relocation of production”, estimates Jean-Philippe Tanguy, industry-energy referent in the team of realization of the program of the candidate RN. However, the text does mention the subject of international exchanges: “Trade rules have the potential to drive international adoption of emissions mitigation technologies and policies”can we read.
Apart from these reservations, this member of the National Rally ensures that the solutions presented in the latest IPCC report “confirm” party program. “The IPCC tells us that the solutions must be adapted to the situation of the country. We must prioritize what is most effective here! he interprets. Stop putting money into wind turbines at sea, but into the transition of thermal heating, reindustrialization…” For “to do one’s part”Marine Le Pen intends to bet on nuclear power and “green hydrogen”.
Solutions that the IPCC does not favor (see infographic below). The latest report instead emphasizes the strong potential of wind and solar power to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He even drew up maps where France appears to be a land well and truly capable of supplying these energies. The document adds that low-carbon hydrogen, displayed as a “great cause of the quinquennium” by Marine Le Pen, according to Jean-Philippe Tanguy, “requires improvements in its production process and cost reductions”.
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When the Giec advocates more pedagogy with citizens, the National Rally intends to gain the acceptance of the population through “public debates”. “We don’t need the government to explain. Citizens are not children. We believe in direct democracy, via the citizens’ initiative referendum. The truth comes out of a debate, and people are asking to save the climate”disputes Jean-Philippe Tanguy on the method.
On the need to increase investments in favor of ecological transition, he puts forward the solution of the sovereign fund proposed by Marine Le Pen, which will have to irrigate, among other things, the ecological transition, according to its program. (PDF document). As for sobriety, the Lepenist camp affirms that the subject is not a priority.
“Social justice will always come before the ecological question.”
Jean-Philippe Tanguy, Deputy Campaign Director of Marine Le Penat franceinfo
However, the IPCC report does not oppose the two issues. He associates them. It also expressly mentions that policies to reduce consumption-related emissions must “ensure human well-being for all”.