Currently, France invests 40 billion per year in favor of climate, but, according to a report, it would be necessary to bring this sum between 50 and 70 billion to reach the goal of carbon neutrality in 2050. The country continues to invest twice more in fossil fuels.
Investments in favor of climate have progressed in France but still remain much lower than what the country should mobilize to achieve the objectives it has set, according to a report published Monday of the think tank I4CE.
Investments for climate now exceed 40 billion euros but "needs in the field are between 50 and 70 billion euros per year," notes the Institute for Climate Economics (I4CE), from the Caisse des Deposits, in its annual panorama.
Investments, however, have increased over the last three years, driven by efforts to improve energy efficiency. "But this rise is too timid to fill the annual investment gap , " says the think tank.
Not in the nails of the goals
This observation takes as a reference the objectives set by France in its low-carbon national strategy - which targets carbon neutrality in 2050 - and its multi-annual energy policy (EPP). But France is preparing to review these objectives, so that the gap between needs and reality could still widen.
"The delay between 2016 and 2018 represents missed investments of 40 to 90 billion euros. To make up for this gap between 2019 and 2023 and to cover the initial needs, it would be necessary to invest between 55 and 80 billion euros per year, " the report notes.
Investment gaps are significant in the building renovation, low-carbon vehicle and heat grid deployment sectors.
The Institute notes in passing that the country invests twice as much in fossil fuels whose use is unfavorable to the climate.
"On the order of 70 billion are invested annually in vehicles (often) or boilers (sometimes) that consume too much fossil energy , " notes the report.