French Macron, champion of the Paris climate agreement abroad, falls short at home

In France, however, Mr Macron discovers how difficult it is to implement the agreement without imposing painful changes in the way people live in developed economies. France is lagging behind the rest of Europe in reducing emissions, and Mr Macron has not decided on a strategy to deliver on the country’s promises under the Paris Agreement.

Mr Macron created a gathering of ordinary citizens to come up with a comprehensive plan to put France on a trajectory to become climate neutral by 2050. But the meeting’s plan – which ranges from curbs on domestic flights to taxes on SUV sales – has now been executed in opposition from Mr Macron himself.

“We need to make some adjustments,” said a close presidential assistant, adding that some of the proposals were unacceptable to the public. Mr Macron recently told youth-focused news website Brut that the government needed to study the economic impact of the proposals, adding that it was not for the assembly to “anticipate everything, think about everything.”

In recent years, Macron’s government has taken a fragmented approach, including a national ban on fracking and subsidies to encourage people to buy electric or hybrid vehicles.

Greenhouse gas emissions in France fell by only 1% per year between 2015 and 2018, compared to the 3% annual decrease the government had targeted during that period, according to the Supreme Climate Council, an independent watchdog founded by Mr Macron . In 2019, emissions decreased by 0.9%, while they decreased by 3.7% across Europe. This year, emissions are expected to drop significantly, but only because of two pandemic lockdowns, the Supreme Court said.

The shortcomings point to one of the fundamental weaknesses of the Paris Agreement: it lacks an enforcement mechanism. The agreement aims to limit the increase in global temperature to less than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, with a target of no more than 1.5 degrees. But it is up to individual countries to set their own national goals to help the world achieve that goal.

President Biden on Wednesday suspended new oil and gas leases on federal land and instructed the Department of the Interior to identify steps to double offshore wind production by 2030 and commit Americans to climate-focused public works.

According to energy and economics research firm Rhodium Group, the US has cut its emissions, albeit not fast enough to meet its target of 26% to 28% reduction by 2025 and 80% by 2050. China said it will not start cutting emissions before 2030. It pledged to become carbon neutral by 2060.

France initially pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030, but French officials expect to raise that target to meet the European Union’s target of cutting emissions by 55% over that period. The UK has pledged to cut emissions by 68% by 2030.

Mr Macron says he has done more than any other previous government in France to combat climate change. “I don’t take lessons from anyone,” Mr. Macron said to Brut.

Part of France’s challenge is that it has a lower carbon footprint than the US and most other major EU economies. In 2019, France emitted an average of 5 tons of CO2 per person, according to the Global Carbon Atlas, compared to 16 tons for US citizens.

That makes further reductions an inherently tougher task. Many signatories to the Paris Accord, including Germany, have more room to cut emissions, as they can focus on shutting down coal-fired power stations that produce higher emissions. France does not have that luxury, because its electricity is largely generated by nuclear power plants, which generate less carbon.

Deeper cuts, French officials say, are likely to cut closer to the muscle of the French economy. The Macron government’s plan to increase the carbon tax on fuel in France – a measure intended to curb emissions and help fund the transition to cleaner technologies – sparked the yellow vest protest movement in November 2018. Drivers dressed in reflective safety vests clogged highways, demolished shops and government buildings and made monuments illegible, forcing Mr. Macron to give up the tax increase. A French official said it would be difficult to meet the Paris agreement target in France without increasing carbon taxes again.

In early 2019, film director Cyril Dion and actress Marion Cotillard met Mr. Macron at the Élysée Palace and persuaded him to set up a gathering of 150 citizens to make proposals to reduce emissions.

“It is not something that comes from above, that is imposed. It’s something the French decide for themselves, ”Mr. Dion recalled telling Mr. Macron at the time.

In setting up the meeting, Mr Macron said that the proposals would either be immediately implemented, submitted to a public referendum or submitted directly to Parliament for a vote. Mr. Dion became one of the three guarantors of the meeting, to ensure that the 150 citizens worked together and that the government kept its word.

For months, the meeting met with climate experts, business leaders, economists and lawyers to measure the impact of each of their 149 proposals.

Mr. Macron rejected three proposals, including a 4% tax on dividends to help fund new environmental policies, which he said would discourage investment. He accepted proposals to impose a moratorium on the construction of shopping streets on the outskirts of the city and to create an emissions standard system for goods and services.

Other measures were watered down, which angered many members of the convention. For example, a proposed tax on SUVs would only apply to vehicles heavier than 1,800kg or 3,968 pounds, instead of the original 1,400kg. And a proposal to ban domestic flights that could be covered by a train journey of less than four hours was shortened to a train journey of two and a half hours.

“The ideas are still there, but the ambition is not,” says 32-year-old social worker Grégoire Fraty, one of the 150 residents.

In November, Mr. Dion online petition in which Mr. Macron was asked to keep his word and to submit the proposals unfiltered to Parliament. Mr. Macron “is torpedoing the work of the congregation he set up, by not allowing them to achieve the goals he set for himself, it’s schizophrenic,” said Mr. Dion.

“I have 150 citizens and I respect them, but I’m not going to say that just because these 150 citizens wrote something, it’s the Bible or the Quran,” Macron told Brut.

Write to Noemie Bisserbe at [email protected]