Emmanuel Macron walks tightrope with green policy ‘à la française’

Receive free Climate change updates

We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Climate change news every morning.

President Emmanuel Macron has laid out France’s road map to more than halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, but stopped short of bolder moves such as a gas boiler ban that could have stoked a public backlash.

In a long-awaited presentation of the plan behind a promise to cut emissions by 55 per cent compared with 1990 levels, in line with the EU target, Macron argued for an environmentalism “à la française”.

He said this would balance the urgency to act with issues of fairness, such as by helping lower-income people switch to electric cars or giving subsidies for renovating homes. 

“We must build a just and fair green transition,” Macron said. “Our approach should also create value for the economy” by building local supply chains for everything from heat pumps to electric cars, he argued. 

The French shift come as centre-right politicians around the world soften climate-related policies, citing the public backlash to the upfront costs of switching to green energy at a time of inflation and the rising cost of living.

It follows on the UK decision under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to delay a ban on cars with combustion engines from 2030 to 2035 and a ban on gas boilers in new homes from 2025 to 2035, policies he said imposed “unacceptable costs” on citizens. The German government also this month weakened its controversial plan to get rid of gas boilers by next year.

Macron in May called for a “pause” in new green regulations at the EU level, saying focus should be instead on implementing what had already been legislated.

Macron has been walking a tightrope on climate change action since his first term, after his government was shaken by the gilets jaunes (yellow vest) protests in 2018 sparked by attempts to introduce a carbon fuel tax. Political opponents led by Marine Le Pen’s far-right party have also targeted his green policies as elitist and out of touch with lives outside of cities. 

While France derives almost 70 per cent of its electricity from nuclear energy, it is also a large consumer of oil for transport.

Under pressure to find a way to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, France is now seeking to accelerate adoption of electric vehicles and incentivise farmers and industrial groups to shift to less polluting processes.

In his climbdown on the one big policy change that was under consideration — a ban on the installation of gas-fired boilers from 2026 — Macron reasoned that this would give France more time to develop domestic manufacturing of heat pumps instead of relying on imports. It would boost production to 1mn by 2027 and train 30,000 installers.

The move echoes France’s attempts to protect its homegrown car industry while pivoting to electric vehicles, including by making it harder for Chinese-made models to qualify for purchasing subsidies.

Macron set out a goal for 15 per cent of all vehicles to be electric by 2030 from roughly 1 per cent now. But he also outlined aid for some low-income motorists struggling with fuel prices, in another sign of the fine balancing act he is trying to maintain. 

In a nod to an issue that has proved explosive in the past, Macron even underscored how much of a car-lover he was, using the colloquial word “bagnole” to indicate affinity with the populace. “France loves the bagnole, and I adore it.”

But political observers say his attempt to navigate the middle ground could make the climate change policy tricky to implement in a six-year window to the 2030 emissions target.

“What gives cause for some scepticism is that France has been cutting emissions by 2 per cent a year, and we’re going to have to accelerate to 5 per cent,” said Patrice Geoffron, an economics professor at Paris Dauphine university.

“It’s very complicated from an economic point of view and in terms of social acceptability, and it’s hard to create a narrative to bring everyone along with you.”