The government has decided to strip the preliminary draft law on “energy sovereignty” of any objectives in terms of climate and choice of energies, ensuring that it wants to “take more time” for the discussion at a time when Bruno Le Maire takes over the Energy portfolio.
While working on the text, put out for consultation at the beginning of January, representatives of elected officials, NGOs, unions, employers, etc. were informed on Wednesday of these upheavals, which aroused incomprehension and consternation, particularly among environmental associations.
From now on, the project, supposed to set the course for France to move away from fossil fuels, is deprived of its Title I dedicated to energy programming. There remain the aspects of price regulation, consumer protection and the regime of hydroelectric dams. “We have decided to postpone the inclusion of this programmatic component in the law. This time should allow us to finalize the consultation work on our energy and climate strategy,” ultimately explained the Ministry of the Economy. , emphasizing the minister’s intention to meet all the stakeholders and “find consensus”. Bercy did not immediately specify whether this aspect would appear in another bill or would fall under the regulatory route.
The subject – what energies for France by 2030 and 2035, what objectives for reducing energy consumption, etc. – has been the subject of multi-party working group meetings since May 2023 under the aegis of the previous ministry. Then arrived this preliminary draft law, made public on January 8 and which, now simplified, must be presented by the beginning of February to the Council of Ministers.
What debate?
The text had caused a number of energy players to jump due to the absence of quantified objectives for renewable electrical energies (solar, wind), until now recorded in the law. On the other hand, it set precise objectives for nuclear energy, a priority for President Emmanuel Macron and for Bruno Le Maire, in charge of Energy since the reshuffle last Thursday. It also set new objectives for reducing greenhouse gases and energy savings for France, under less binding terms than today (with wording committing to “tend towards” these objectives). None of this appears any more in this “reformative referral to the bill relating to energy sovereignty”, now bearing the letterhead of the Ministry of the Economy.
“NGOs are devastated by this first concrete effect of the transfer of the Ministry of Energy Transition to Bercy,” reacted Anne Bringault, from the Climate Action Network (RAC), member of the National Council for Ecological Transition (CNTE), necessarily consulted for this type of project. This decision “raises fears of a pure and simple disappearance of the parliamentary debate on the course proposed by the government for the ecological transition”, reacted various organizations (RAC, FNE, WWF, CFDT, LPO, Humanity and Biodiversity) in a joint press release. Sandrine Bélier, for Humanity and Biodiversity, another member of the CNTE, denounces “the lack of explanation and the lack of respect for the work already undertaken”. “We ask to be received by the Prime Minister, to find out his commitments on accelerating the ecological and energy transition.”
Questioned in the National Assembly by the environmentalist deputy Julie Laernoes, Bruno Le Maire however assured that his priority was to accelerate “the climate transition”, citing “sobriety”, “energy efficiency”, “renewables, wind power, photovoltaic panels, geothermal energy, heat pumps” and “the construction of six new nuclear reactors”.