In an article written in French and English, Emmanuel Macron once again calls for a reform of global financial governance to facilitate the energy transition. The French president particularly insists on the need for increased support for emerging countries through financial tools, calling for a rapid exit from coal.
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Without announcing any major new developments, Emmanuel Macron insists in a column on the support to be given to emerging countries. The objective would be to escape both dependence on coal and current financial mechanisms imposing too many constraints on their climate transition.
In this text published this Friday in the columns of World, the head of state pleads, among other things, for a relaxation of debt rules, like what was done in Europe during the Covid-19 crisis. According to him, this requires a reform of the Bretton-Woods agreements establishing the functioning of the IMF and the World Bank. These institutions, which “ have an eminent role in setting standards and financing the ecological transition on a global scale » are undersized compared to the size of the world economy and population, insists the French president.
A “responsibility gap”
Once again, Emmanuel Macron wants to appear as a climate champion and a privileged interlocutor for emerging countries. He recalls in particular that France will organize summits jointly with Kazakhstan and Costa Rica.
A strategy which questions the MEP Les Écologists David Cormand: “ He tells them “we are going to reform so that you can no longer go into debt to buy nuclear power plants from me”. To move away from coal, we need to move to renewables and nuclear power. And that’s good, we sell them. This is a logic that I have difficulty perceiving as real cooperation. », he says on the microphone ofAurélien Devernoix. “ The prosperity today of the countries of the North, and in particular of Europe, is based on the capture of a certain number of resources, these emerging countries. For me there is also a lack of responsibility compared to what they offer. »
A way also for Emmanuel Macron to breathe life into his second term after a year 2023 marked by pension and immigration reforms, but also to continue to be heard on the international scene where the voice of France is marginalized in the two major current crises: Ukraine and the Middle East.
Read alsoEcological planning: French President Emmanuel Macron reveals his objectives