All environmentalists? With the exception of the far-right candidates, every contender for the Élysée Palace now has the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Behind a formula that has become commonplace, let’s recall the ambitious goal: It involves dividing our current emissions by at least six CO2. “The incorporation of this goal into law in 2019 forced candidates to seize it, says Anne Bringault, program coordinator at the Climate Action Network. The problem is that this doesn’t necessarily lead to concrete proposals to make it happen. »
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Because there is a gap between the programs that is given to the environment. The issue is at the heart of rebellious Jean-Luc Mélenchon and environmental candidate Yannick Jadot. It is also present, to a lesser extent, with communist Fabien Roussel and socialist Anne Hidalgo, who show ambition in several key sectors.
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The candidates Les Républicains (LR) Valérie Pécresse and Emmanuel Macron give him only a limited space (a page with programs that include about twenty). For the extreme right, ecology serves as a foil. In the few lines dedicated to the subject in their project, Marine Le Pen, like Éric Zemmour, insists above all on freezing every new wind project on land and at sea.
Common point of most programs: the building responsible for 17% of French emissions. Almost all of them have ambitions when it comes to renovation. This is hardly surprising: successive governments have supported this policy since 2007. The nuance lies in a clear desire on the left for mandatory measures and major renovations.
“classic” division
“We find the classic left-right division, analyzes Daniel Boy, Research Director Emeritus at Cevipof (Sciences Po). The right promotes environmental policies based more on the benefits of science and technology. She opposes the ideas of sobriety carried by the left. » Valérie Pécresse and Emmanuel Macron present technological solutions: hydrogen transport, relaunch of the nuclear fission research project (Astrid) by Valérie Pécresse, who also makes offers “Sustainable reindustrialization”.
Candidate LR does not hesitate to scourge her opponents by disqualifying a supposed ecology “Penalty”. Emmanuel Macron takes a more ambivalent position on the issue. His lead on the “Amish Pattern”, to qualify opponents of the deployment of 5G in 2020, has put it more in the same line. But at the launch of his campaign in Aubervilliers on March 17, the candidate mentioned the need “consume less through behavior change”. Assuming that “produce more” to the “Protect our social model”.
A pragmatic ecology
“Above all, Emmanuel Macron wants to be pragmaticexplains Daniel Boy. Their stance has always been based on the idea that the solution to the environmental problem is neither left nor right. » For her part, Valérie Pécresse agrees “traditional vision of the French right” for Simon Persico, Professor of Political Science at Sciences Po Grenoble. Despite the very strong environmental ambitions that this implies, he is not surprised to hear candidate LR adopting the language of carbon neutrality. “The party has always supported environmental issues, often through consensual and moderate responses,” continues Simon Persico.
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Even if the term has gotten a bit old, the term “sustainable development” is still present in the background. “The vision of Emmanuel Macron and Valérie Pécresse is to develop an industrial policy committed to growth, starting from ecological issues”analyzes Bruno Villalba, Professor of Political Science at AgroParisTech (1).
So what development compared to 2017? “Environmental proposals have become much more competentexplains Daniel Boy. We used to fight over ideas, now it’s about specific accounts. » So: depending on whether you are more interested in new nuclear reactors or 100% renewable reactors, you only have to follow the trajectories proposed by the electricity transmission grid to find out how to harmonize the guidelines (and the resulting risks). Several visions of society emerge from these more or less productive energy choices.
Two approaches to sobriety
In order to, “Transition scenarios and the work of think tanks (focus groups) brought the concept of sobriety to the forefront of the debateexplains Anne Bringault of the Climate Action Network. This is probably a novelty in this presidential election. Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Yannick Jadot are the two main promoters. The first offers the most radical approach, claims above all the “Ecological Planning”and a “Revolution in the way of producing and consuming”. The second first tries to propose a policy of “Enthusiasm” and differs from Jean-Luc Mélenchon in method: more oriented towards the use of European leverage.
However, the two candidates share many common lines: ending factory farming, requiring home renovations, bringing forward the date for the ban on single-use plastic. “One of the differences between Yannick Jadot and Jean-Luc Mélenchon is the discourse on reindustrialization, which is more driven by the latter.remarks Bruno Villalba. La France insoumise and EELV illustrate this tension between the promise of abundance – aimed at reducing inequalities – and a discourse on sobriety, that is, a discourse more compatible with planetary boundaries. »
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More broadly, the main left parties have all gone green. The PS takes up the theses of the EELV, with nuances in the proposals. Also Fabien Roussel multiplying the projections against the proponents a “Fault” and rejecting sobriety, proposing to use 6% of GDP for the ecological transition, with “an important policy in line with the recommendations of the IPCC”.
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