It all started positively in 2017, with Macron determined to lead international efforts on climate. One month after his election, he responded<\/a> to Donald Trump\u2019s decision to take the US out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement by modifying Trump\u2019s famous slogan. He launched the Make Our Planet Great Again initiative, with a website<\/a> inviting people to join France in taking action against climate change. By the end of 2021, the initiative had spent 30 million euros (US$31.5 million) to help fund the work of 42 foreign researchers. These were the first steps of what many hoped would be the beginning of a new green political era in France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2050<\/p> Under Macron, France pledged it would become carbon neutral by 2050<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n \u201cDuring his first term, Macron stepped up several times on climate,\u201d says S\u00e9bastien Treyer, executive director of the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), a thinktank based in Paris. At the international level, Treyer points both to the president\u2019s efforts to breathe new life into the Paris agreement following Trump\u2019s disruptions, and to the launch of the One Planet Summit in 2017 to speed up its implementation. Later editions of the summit, dedicated to biodiversity in 2021 and the ocean in 2022, were also hosted in France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the European level, Macron has played a strategic role in advancing Europe\u2019s climate ambitions, especially via the European Green Deal, a set of policy initiatives targeting a \u201cclimate-neutral\u201d EU by 2050. He has directly promoted<\/a> environmental actions in Brussels, notably on hastening the introduction of a carbon levy<\/a> and on combatting imported deforestation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut being active politically is not enough,\u201d Treyer says. \u201cChanges must also happen on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is how observers frequently summarised Macron\u2019s work on climate during his first term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is broad consensus that his government has taken some important decisions, such as definitively cancelling the construction of the Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport, near Nantes. That project had led to strong opposition<\/a> and protest camps in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Macron\u2019s team also presented a mobility plan<\/a>, aiming to encourage cycling and other active means of transport, and to increase their share of overall journeys from 3% to 9% by 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Macron\u2019s time in office has also seen the permanent closure of more than 100 train stations across France. Meanwhile, the aviation sector received 17 billion euros<\/a> (US$17.9 billion) in support early in the Covid-19 pandemic, with no environmental or social safeguards built in; only Air France was convinced to abandon some of its domestic routes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such contradictory environmental measures occurred in many French sectors over the past five years. French climate action network R\u00e9seau Action Climat describes a \u201cone step forward, two steps back\u201d pattern in a recent report<\/a> that delivered a harsh assessment on climate and the energy transition during Macron\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On energy, the government has made progress in closing two coal-fired power stations, in Le Havre and Gardanne, but has elsewhere recorded delays<\/a> on renewable energy development and energy efficiency. Meanwhile, it has announced<\/a> that several new nuclear reactors will be built.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On agriculture, financial support has been increased to encourage the wider cultivation of legumes, which have a lower environmental impact than other crops and livestock. However, no measures have been taken around factory farms, while the share of organic food in catering has only reached 6.6%, whereas the goal was to reach 20% by 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anne Bringault, programmes coordinator at R\u00e9seau Action Climat, says that despite Macron launching the 2050 carbon neutrality goal for France in 2019, there have since been \u201cno significant actions taken in our country towards it\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n France has indeed stuttered<\/a> in delivering on its greenhouse gas commitments. \u201cDue to the delay accumulated by France, the current rate of annual reduction [in emissions] will have to practically double\u201d, warned<\/a> the High Council for the Climate, an institution set up by Macron himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2021, the justice system also took the novel step of recognising the responsibility<\/a> of the French state for the climate emergency \u2013 twice. In one of the judgments brought by several NGOs, and known as l\u2019Affaire du Si\u00e8cle<\/em><\/a> (The Case of the Century), a Paris court found that the state\u2019s failure to comply with its commitments to reduce emissions is causing serious \u201cecological harm\u201d. The state now has an obligation to act, to respect its commitments and repair the damages done after lost time on climate action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another squandered opportunity has been the Citizens\u2019 Convention for Climate<\/a>, a democratic experiment designed to give people a voice in policy. It brought together 150 citizens to define a series of measures aimed at reducing emissions by at least 40% by 2030. \u201cThe convention worked on its job for nine months. They developed 150 propositions that Emmanuel Macron promised to bring to the parliament,\u201d recounts Bringault. \u201cBut many industrial actors did not respond well to the measures, and the plans changed: almost none of the propositions from the convention have been kept as they were.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, the convention proposed a ban on domestic flights between destinations that could be reached by train in less than four hours. The government ultimately passed a law with this limit reduced to two and half hours \u2013 under which almost no flight is impacted. Elsewhere, the convention suggested<\/a> owner-occupiers and lessors be obliged to pay for energy efficiency measures in their houses \u2013 a proposal that has simply been forgotten. It also called for a levy to be imposed on synthetic nitrogenous fertilisers, which are responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions. That measure was rejected by the senate and replaced<\/a> by a non-binding one. The only proposal from the convention that has been kept fully intact is a ban<\/a> on trailing advertisements behind aircraft. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt looks like Macron\u2019s governments have not yet understood that the transition needs to start now,\u201d says IDDRI\u2019s Treyer. \u201cAny measures benefiting the environment and the climate seem to be seen as constraints that will cause economic opportunities to be lost. Take pesticides for example\u2026 In the end, despite constructive discussions [between NGOs, citizen representatives] and the minister of agriculture, sales of pesticides are now up sharply.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what worries Treyer most is that the message sent by the citizens from the convention has not been acknowledged. \u201cThe proposed measures had to be understood as a whole \u2013 this is how they took on their full meaning and traced a path towards a proper green transformation. By taking them one by one and changing them, they have been emptied of their substance, dragging down the ambitions for change,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This poor implementation of citizens\u2019 expectations has generated disappointment, and widened the divide between politicians and the population, a large portion of which is demanding change. The decaying relationship was not helped by the uncovering of the activities of the Cellule D\u00e9meter. This arm of the National Gendarmerie was created in 2019 to protect farmers from criminal acts but also to prevent \u201cactions of an ideological nature\u201d. This last aspect, which targeted a number of activists and journalists, was denounced by NGOs as \u201cintimidation\u201d and \u201cserious attacks on freedom of expressions.\u201d Earlier this year, a court found the force\u2019s operation to be partly illegal<\/a> and asked the government to put an end to its activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three figures in the new government, picked after Macron\u2019s re-election in April, may hold the key to plotting a greener course for France: Elisabeth Borne, the new prime minister, Am\u00e9lie de Montchalin, minister for ecological transition, and Agn\u00e8s Pannier-Runacher, minister for energy transition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If they are to kickstart the nation\u2019s long-awaited transition, their main mission could well be to rebuild trust between citizens and Parisian political elites from whom many feel increasingly disconnected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first signs sent by \u201cMacron 2.0\u201d left Anne Bringault with mixed feelings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBefore the first round of the election, we fell off our chairs when we found out about Macron\u2019s environmental plans. There was almost nothing, much less than in his 2017 manifesto actually,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In between the rounds of the election, however, Macron surprised many by adding more environmental focus into his speeches. It was an attempt to attract voters from the left wing, environmentalists, and particularly supporters of La France Insoumise<\/em> (Insubordinate France) \u2013 the populist, democratic socialist party that won nearly 22% of first-round votes. \u201cWhereas he never mentioned climate once during the first round, we could suddenly hear Macron talking about \u2018ecological planning\u2019 or \u2018food sovereignty\u2019 \u2013 terms that he emptied of meaning and took over from his opponent from La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon, and from the anti-globalisation movement,\u201d Bringault noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMany words but few actions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Citizen proposals watered down<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Emmanuel](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20220614_France-citizens-convention-climate_Alamy_2DJGD3C.jpg\")
<\/div>The proposed measures had to be understood as a whole. By taking them one by one and changing them, they have been emptied of their substance<\/blockquote>S\u00e9bastien Treyer, on the proposals made by the Citizens\u2019 Convention for Climate<\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Moments of truth ahead<\/h2>\n\n\n\n