2024 election: Little consensus amongst French candidates on future of EU Green Deal

The lead EU election candidates from the main French parties debated the Green Deal on Tuesday (April 16) in Angers, expressing fundamentally different views on how Europe should decarbonise.

Ahead of the European elections in June, which are expected to see the European parliament shift to the right, the leading French candidates were asked: “What future for the European Green Deal?”

The debate, organised by the association Les Shifters, covered three core issues: a ban on selling new internal combustion engine (ICE) cars, Europe’s future energy mix and financing the climate transition.

ICE car ban

Firstly, the candidates were questioned about the de facto ban on new ICE car sales in 2035, adopted with difficulty in March 2023. The least popular climate measure in Europe has the support of left-wing politicians but not of right-wing parties.

While all parties agreed on the need to develop alternatives to ICE cars, like electric cars, the leftist leaders Manon Aubry (La France insoumise, The Left) and Raphaël Glucksmann (Parti socialiste-Place publique, S&D) insisted on the need to develop better public transport at lower costs for the middle and poor classes.

From Macron’s camp, Valérie Hayer (Renaissance, Renew) listed the measures the government is taking to boost electric car usage, such as social leasing and more charging stations.

She also recalled that used vehicles were not affected by the 2035 ban. The centre-right leader (Les républicains, EPP), François-Xavier Bellamy, painted a vision of “a two-speed transport sector” divided into those with new electric vehicles and those driving used ICE cars.

Energy and climate

Ecological leader Marie Toussaint (Greens/EFA) took the lead on energy, arguing for a drastic reduction in energy consumption and a massive scale-up of renewable energy. Aubry and Glucksmann on the left also praised two themes.

The socialist candidate Glucksmann also pushed for the continued operation of France’s nuclear fleet.

Jean-Philippe Tanguy, who represents the Rassemblement National (ID), proposed a total relaunch of the nuclear industry, focusing on ‘4th generation’ technology, which he claimed is more efficient and secure than current nuclear technologies.

Bellamy emphasised the importance of climate action at a global level, focusing on the exit from coal burning. In this vein, he argued that one of the most effective measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to expand the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism, adopted in December 2022.

This mechanism will set tariffs on imports of steel, fertiliser, and cement from non-EU countries that do not sufficiently price associated carbon emissions.

Funding

Ultimately, “who pays?” Aubry asked, the billions of euros necessary to invest in Europe and France for the energy transition.

The investment needs are significant: more than €60 billion annually in France by 2030, of which half will be needed in the building renovation sector.

In this area, for which the EU has just adopted the divisive energy performance building directive (EPBD), Glucksmann proposed European-level debt and a “superprofits” tax upon the richest asset owners.

Bellamy, whose group voted against the EPBD, prefers to “mobilise the savings of Europeans”. Tanguy, whose group also rejected the EPBD, proposed to massively use “quantitative easing” – essentially boosting the economy’s money supply via low-interest rates and other mechanisms.

Left/right divide

The far-right MP considers that the climate transition is only possible by putting the real problem back on the table: “globalisation”. Also he considers the Green deal a “false promise”.

Bellamy wants to reintroduce the climate issue on economic and social domains of interest as quickly as possible.

Liberal candidate Hayer proposed a new ‘Blue Deal’ to protect the economy and the marine environment in parallel with the Green Deal. A similar proposition was made by MEPs last October.

On the left, MEPs want to go further. Aubry advocates a total exit from trade agreements, while green Toussaint pushed for even more ambitious climate targets: “The EU should aim to reduce greenhouses gas from 1990 to 2030 by 70-75%,”. Current EU rules target a 55% reduction by 2030.

[Edited by Donagh Cagney/Alice Taylor]

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