France: A Response to Climate Change

 by Amazing Izekor

On March 1st 2022, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published an assessment report, titled Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. This report paints a worrying picture of the foreseeable future due to the effects of climate change. Globally, humanity is already suffering its consequences through extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, heatwaves, violent storms etc. In France, summer temperatures reached record heights this year. According to Metéo France, temperatures recorded on 30th August were the second highest they have been since 2003. The French National Weather Service joins the IPCC as a bearer of bad news, as they released a warning that these summers will be typical in coming decades. Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the current French Energy Transition Minister, has also expressed her concern that “...the summer of 2022 is probably the coolest you have experienced or will experience in the next 20 years.” 

The message could not be any clearer: action needs to be taken immediately. The alarm bells are impossible to ignore at this stage and this report is another chime in the cacophony of resounding calls to action. Thus, France has renewed its commitment to continue improving its efforts to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases. This resolution has, in part, been fulfilled through the Climate and Resilience Act, an effort to increase the employment of renewable energy sources and to reach EU climate targets. Also, the second National Climate Change Adaptation Plan was set in motion in anticipation of the inevitable impacts of climate change. 

We have also seen pledges from President Emmanuel Macron, during the most recent presidential election, to commit to the 2015 Paris Agreement, which aims to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius and ideally, to 1.5. For some, these are the objectives of an idealist because it is hard to imagine France, Europe’s second-biggest economy, willingly making change that is great enough to reach these goals. However, if we are to entertain these supposed ‘idealistic aspirations’ and assume that such a feat is possible in practice, climate policies become considerably more impactful, more so than ever before. In recognition of this, Macron, in the final days of his campaign, declared that he would set up “50 offshore wind farms, increase solar panels tenfold and appoint a new Minister of Energy”, as Euronews Green reports. These declarations have done little in the grand scheme of things, as French climate activists have deemed his rhetoric on climate change to have been no more than a political bid to win over left-leaning voters. Moreover, in 2021, prior to this election, with Macron in office, a French court found the government guilty of climate inaction because there had been a failure to accomplish targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is failures like this that make climate goals nothing more than wishful thinking for some and perpetuate severe fear and anxiety for the future that lies ahead. 

It is unfair to say that there has been complete negligence from the French government in response to climate issues because we have certainly seen efforts to tackle them, over the past two years through new schemes of action. In 2021, a new climate law notably created new criminal penalties for ecocide or other forms of environmental endangerment. In addition, there have been calls for greater transparency from Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data providers, who are under-regulated to a large extent, which is especially concerning considering their growing influence. This transparency extends itself to work councils in France, which are now required to include reports on the environmental effect of companies’ projects when questioned about company conduct. Furthermore, domestic properties which are estimated to fall below the minimum level of energy efficiency will face increased penalties. 

The French government has definitely attempted to handle the climate crisis by laying out methods to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, calling for greater transparency in environmental departments and implementing more penalties for unsustainable practices. These are just a few examples of how France is advancing towards a more sustainable future. However, many people are asking: ‘Is enough being done?’ or even ‘What more can be done?’ and these questions reflect the time of apprehension we live in, as we journey towards our inevitable and equally uncertain future.