The executive loses its green eminence. Antoine Pellion has decided to leave the management of the General Secretariat for Ecological Planning (SGPE), an organization attached to the Prime Minister to coordinate the government’s policy and environmental ambitions, he announced on Monday, February 17 to AFP.
“I confirm to you that I decided to leave my duties as secretary general for ecological planning to join the IDEX group from the end of March as Deputy Managing Director responsible for development,” said Antoine Pellion, after several press information announcing his departure.
Appointed at the head of the SGPE in the summer of 2022 by ex-prime minister Elisabeth Borne, Antoine Pellion led a small team of around twenty people, made up of engineers, technical advisers, and communicators. His mission? Build the Roadmake of the Ecological Transition and coordinate the entire government policy on the subject.
This departure comes in a context of concerns around a possible decline in the place of the ecological transition in government policy. For Antoine Pellion, “a certain number of steps have been taken”, such as the implementation of a transition plan for 2030, the decline of greenhouse gas emissions from France in 2024 or the territorial declination of measures via regional COPs. “I believe that on a certain number of subjects, we have been to the end. So I wanted to look at where I will have the most impact” and act directly on the field, he explained .
“An ecological backlash period”
For Antoine Pellion, his departure does not question the role and importance of the SGPE which is an “established institution”. He declares “no doubt” in the fact that “his successor”, whose name is not yet known, “will continue to conduct the missions and objectives” of ecological transition that the government has set for itself. But he also recognizes that “we are in a period of ecological backlash” where “at the same time we have the means to succeed but where there are also a lot of doubts” which appear.
Questioned by AFP, Matignon indicates that he “does not plan to review the missions and attributions of the SGPE and does not envisage a merger with other structures”.