Macron of France, champion of the Paris Climate Agreement Abroad, falls short of home

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

Mr. Macron created an assembly of ordinary citizens to present a comprehensive plan to put France on a path to becoming carbon neutral by 2050. But the assembly’s plan – ranging from domestic flight restrictions to SUV sales taxes – has now been executed in opposition to Mr. Macron himself.

“We need to make some adjustments,” said a presidential aide, adding that some of the proposals were unacceptable to the public. Mr. Macron recently told the news site aimed at young Brut that the government needed to study the economic impact of the proposals, adding that it was not up to the assembly to “anticipate everything, think about everything”.

In recent years, the Macron government has taken a fragmented approach that includes a national ban on hydraulic fracturing and subsidies to encourage people to buy electric or hybrid vehicles.

Greenhouse gas emissions in France fell just 1% a year between 2015 and 2018, compared to the 3% annual decline that the government has targeted during that period, according to the High Climate Council, an independent body created by Macron. In 2019, emissions decreased 0.9%, while they fell 3.7% across Europe. This year emissions are expected to decline substantially, but only because of two pandemic blockages, the Board said.

The deficiencies point to one of the fundamental weaknesses of the Paris agreement: it lacks an enforcement mechanism. The deal aims to limit the rise 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 each country to define its 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 measures to double offshore wind production by 2030 and employ Americans in climate-focused public works projects.

The United States has cut its emissions, although it is not fast enough to meet its 26% to 28% reduction target by 2025 and 80% by 2050, according to the energy and economy research firm Rhodium Group. China has said it will not start reducing emissions before 2030. It has promised to become carbon neutral by 2060.

France initially promised to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030, but French authorities hope to increase that target to meet the European Union’s goal of reducing emissions by 55% in that period. The United Kingdom has pledged to reduce emissions by 68% by 2030.

Mr. Macron says he has done more than any previous government in France to combat climate change. “I don’t have classes with anyone,” Macron told Brut.

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

This makes subsequent reductions an inherently more difficult task. Many of the signatories to the Paris agreement, including Germany, have more room to reduce emissions because they can focus on closing coal-fired plants that produce higher emissions. France does not have that luxury, because its electricity is produced largely by nuclear plants, which generate less carbon.

Deeper cuts, French officials say, are likely to reduce the muscle of the French economy. The Macron government’s plan to increase France’s carbon tax on fuel – a measure designed to reduce emissions and help finance the transition to cleaner technologies – kicked off the yellow vest protest movement in November 2018. Drivers dressed in reflective safety vests obstructed roads, vandalized shops disfigured government buildings and monuments, forcing Macron to abandon the tax hike. A French official said it would be difficult to achieve the goal of the French Paris agreement without raising the carbon tax again.

In early 2019, film director Cyril Dion and actress Marion Cotillard met with Macron at the Elysee Palace, persuading him to establish an assembly of 150 citizens to propose ways to reduce emissions.

“It is not something that comes from above, that is imposed. It is something that the French decide for themselves, ”recalled Dion saying to Macron at the time.

When establishing the assembly, Mr. Macron said that his proposals would be immediately applied, submitted to a public referendum or directly to Parliament for voting. Mr. Dion became one of the assembly’s three guarantors, charged with ensuring that the 150 citizens worked together and that the government kept its word.

For months, the assembly met with climate experts, business leaders, economists and lawyers, measuring the impact of each of its 149 proposals.

Macron rejected three proposals, including a 4% dividend tax to help finance new environmental policies, which he said would discourage investment. He accepted proposals to impose a moratorium on the construction of commercial neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city and create an emissions classification system for goods and services.

Other measures have been mitigated, angering many members of the convention. A proposed SUV tax, for example, would only apply to vehicles heavier than 1,800 kg, or 3,968 pounds, instead of the original 1,400 kg. And a proposal to ban domestic flights that could be covered by a train journey of less than four hours was cut short to a train journey of two and a half hours.

“The ideas are still there, but not the ambition,” said social worker Grégoire Fraty, 32, one of 150 citizens.

In November, Mr. Dion launched an online petition asking Mr. Macron to keep his word and submit unfiltered proposals to Parliament. Mr. Macron “is torpedoing the work of the assembly he set up, by not allowing them to achieve the goals he set himself, he is schizophrenic,” said Dion.

“I have 150 citizens and I respect them, but I will not say that because these 150 citizens wrote something, it is the Bible or the Koran,” Macron told Brut.

Write to Noemie Bisserbe at [email protected]