The post-election parliamentary machine is set in motion. The deputies voted, Wednesday, July 20, the revaluation of 4% of pensions and social benefits, but also deconjugalized the Disabled Adult Allowance (AAH) in a rare moment of unanimity since the beginning – laborious and conflicting – of the debates in the Assembly on the bill in favor of purchasing power.
Unsurprisingly, the groups of the left alliance (Nupes) largely abstained on the revaluations which, according to LFI deputy Adrien Quatennens, “endorse reductions in purchasing power” because “below inflation”. The anger of the left has also focused on the provisions of the purchasing power bill facilitating the use of fossil fuels. She denounces “climaticide” measures.
While France was suffocated for several days by an intense heat wave, concerns about global warming are gaining visibility. This was then the opportunity for the oppositions to attack the executive, whose inertia they condemn on the climate component. Vice-president of the LFI-NUPES group, Clémence Guetté accused the government project of “crushing environmental law”. “A few crumbs and a lot of carbon”, summed up the EELV deputy Sandrine Rousseau to qualify a text which would only “accelerate the crazy machine of carbon growth”.
“Total Nonsense”
For her part, the deputy of Seine-Saint-Denis, Aurélie Trouvou, evokes “a heresy in the face of climate chaos”, when her counterpart from Bouches-du-Rhône, Manuel Bompard, castigates “irresponsibility”. All are unanimous: the executive has exploited the crisis linked to the Ukrainian war.
In their sights, a series of articles which aim to guarantee the “energy sovereignty” of France, weakened like others by the Russian threat to turn off the hydrocarbon tap. Among the measures which provoke the ire of the deputies, article 16 which authorizes the raising by decree of the ceiling of greenhouse gas emissions, by posing however as conditions the existence of a “threat on the security of ‘electricity supply’ and ensuring that these additional emissions are offset by reductions in other sectors.
During his speech on July 18 in the National Assembly, Sandrine Rousseau points out that the text contains “the possibility of reopening coal-fired power stations”, which emit “not less than 1,058 grams of CO2 per kWh”. Indeed, this legal framework should make it possible to establish the increased use of coal decided by the government, announcing the restart next winter of the Saint-Avold site (Moselle), which had however been closed in March.
To prepare for this, the bill provides for a “derogation” from the Labor Code which allows the rehiring of former dismissed employees, even less than six months after a social plan. Justified by the forced shutdown of part of the nuclear park, the use of the most polluting of fuels makes jump to the right, the leader of the deputies LR Olivier Marleix seeing it as an “absurdity”.
“We are in a race against time to secure our energy supplies for next winter,” defended Agnès Pannier-Runacher on Monday. The Minister for Energy Transition already assured, on July 11, that the measure on the Saint-Avold power plant “did not, obviously, modify our trajectory for reducing greenhouse gases.” Hard to believe for activists.
Environmental NGOs strangle themselves
Another part of the text (article 12) plans to unravel the Environmental Code with the establishment of derogations to allow the commissioning of the very first floating LNG terminal in France, in the port of Le Havre. Through this project, the idea is to diversify gas supply sources. The text provides for the possibility of exempting this project, which will be operated by TotalEnergies, from an environmental impact assessment and also reduces the number of mandatory consultations to be carried out before the works. The aim of this administrative simplification: to save time. Greenpeace is strangled: “What does an article on the extension of gas installations do in a law on purchasing power?”
On Twitter, Lorette Philippot, campaign manager at Friends of the Earth, says “no more words” to describe the situation. On the left, several deputies see above all in this terminal, whose commissioning is scheduled for September 2023, a means of importing american shale gas. As a reminder, the exploitation of this fuel was banned in 2017 in France because its extraction pollutes water. “After the Gard, the Gironde, Normandy and now Brittany. It’s all of France that is burning and the Government wants to install a mega shale gas import terminal in the law. Above all, don’t change anything”, s’ protests against NUPES MP Alma Dufour, climate activist.
For ecologist Delphine Batho, this is a step back. “France has banned hydraulic fracturing as well as the search for and exploitation of shale gas on its soil. We cannot therefore be complicit in the exploitation of the dirtiest fossil fuels internationally,” says -she. For the time being, the government has not clearly indicated that the LNG terminal would transport shale gas. Contacted by AFP, the TotalEnergies group did not provide any details on this point.
Adopted in committee, a socialist amendment posed a safeguard: the duration of operation of this terminal was limited to five years and any renewal will have to pass “by law”. But concerns persist. Pointed out by the opposition, the executive ensures that the course of carbon neutrality by 2050 has not changed. “I want to reaffirm the government’s climate ambition”, insisted Agnès Pannier-Runacher, who reiterated her desire to “liberate the French from fossil fuels”.
In the meantime, the government prefers to insist on individual responsibility in ecological matters. Government spokesman Olivier Véran asked the French on Wednesday to multiply “small everyday gestures” in order to save energy. It remains to be seen if these gestures will be enough…