He is not known for his commitment to the environment. Christophe Béchu was Minister Delegate in charge of Territorial Communities under the first government of Elisabeth Borne, he became, on the occasion of the reshuffle of Monday July 4, the new Minister of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion in replacement of Amélie de Montchalin defeated in the legislative elections.
Reshuffle: “Ecological transition is a social and social project, which will only be achieved by bringing together 66 million French people”, declares Amélie de Montchalin, former Minister for Ecological Transition
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Christophe Béchu was re-elected mayor of Angers in 2020 in the first round. He is also the chairman of the Transport Infrastructure Financing Agency. He is a seasoned politician, former senator and former European deputy. He was the youngest department president. This close friend of Edouard Philippe left the Les Républicains party and then became the general secretary of the Horizons party. He has no real experience in environmental matters but to his credit, he is the mayor of a city which is a model in terms of revegetation.
During the handover to the Ministry of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu declared that he wanted to embody a “ecology of action and everyday life”. An action that he will share with the other minister of the environment pole of the government, Agnès Pannier-Runnacher. It is the duo at the head of the structure, with the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion for Christophe Béchu, and that of Energy Transition for Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
The architecture is widened and the Ecological Transition inherits two delegate ministers who already existed in the Castex government, but not in the first government of Elisabeth Borne. The Ministry of Transport will be headed by the former Mr. Europe of the government, Clément Beaune. Among other things, it will have to develop the electrification of the vehicle fleet. The Ministry of Housing will be under the authority of Olivier Klein, a former socialist and mayor of Clichy-sous-Bois. It will have to improve the thermal insulation of housing, the policy of which was criticized in the latest report by the High Council for the Climate.
Two State Secretaries also appear with the Minister for Ecological Transition: Bérangère Couillard, who worked in mass distribution and clothing before becoming a Member of Parliament, becomes Secretary of State in charge of Ecology, and Dominique Faure, Member of Parliament for Haute-Garonne, is in charge of Rurality
Environmental policy will be steered from Matignon, starting with Elisabeth Borne who is Prime Minister “responsible for ecological and energy planning”, and thanks to a general secretariat sto Ecological Planning entrusted to a pillar of France’s climate policy. This is Antoine Pellion, a former adviser to Matignon and the Elysée. Its role will be to implement the ministries’ roadmap and the assessment of their climate policy.
There are two main priorities on this roadmap. First, France is going to have to make great efforts in terms of reducing greenhouse gases if it wants to get on the trajectory that Europe has set. France has respected its trajectory in 2021 but the High Council for the Climate is concerned that it will now have to double the results by 2030 to respect the European framework, which is preponderant in climate matters.
The other priority, reinforced by the war in Ukraine, concerns energy. The country is entering a period of uncertainty. We will have to do without Russian gas in the coming months and deal with a nuclear fleet limited by maintenance and welding problems. The challenge is to manage the energy supply. This involves the short term for gas and oil and the long term with the development of offshore wind and solar power, and the construction of a fleet of six EPR2 reactors.