In the spotlight: climate ambition
Audio 04:40
Former French President François Hollande a few days before the launch of the COP 21 climate summit.
REUTERS / Eric Feferberg / Pool
By: Norbert Navarro
9 min
Publicity
December 12, 2015 - December 12, 2020. It was five years ago, and the French press still believes in it… Five years after this historic agreement, a virtual summit is being organized today by Paris, London and the UN in the hope to breathe new life into it.
The Élysée suggests that around thirty countries should make announcements around the objective of long-term carbon neutrality.
While
Le Figaro
is delighted that the Heads of State and Government of the European Union yesterday agreed to increase, by 2030, "
the ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
" from 40% to “
at least
” 55% compared to 1990 levels, the newspaper Liberation devotes its front page to a kind of the most optimistic weather
forecast
by pointing out the “
climate of hope
” which should reign on the planet.
Because in terms of ecology, “
we have no choice.
We must move forward, believe in it more every day, if only to give hope to this young generation which has made the climate its battle, its horizon,
”sermons this daily.
Libé
believes in it all the more since in 2020, nature has shown that when we stop abusing it, “
it is reborn.
Certainly, it is to be feared that this period of air, road and consumerist abstinence will be followed by a rush in planes and places of excessive consumption.
But we now know that if we want, we can
”.
In France, the anger of cultural professionals cannot be denied. To fight against the coronavirus, Prime Minister Jean Castex, the day before yesterday, announced in particular that the performance venues would not reopen before January 7
:
As we saw yesterday, cinemas, theaters and museums will remain closed for at least three weeks.
All things considered,
Le Figaro
has decided.
According to this newspaper, this announcement by Jean Castex is so "
incomprehensible
" that, "
if we were at the cinema - and we are a little there -, it seems that the scenario does not hold water
."
One of two things, this daily explains, “
either the situation is serious - and it seems to be so - and then why lift the confinement, authorize travel, not strengthen health security measures in the most frequented
?
Either it is not that much, and then why maintain in penance an essential sector of the life of the country
?
".
And
Le Figaro
deplores it
, "
by treating culture as an adjustment variable, by sending the actors back to the locker room, like comedy lackeys, the government makes them the scapegoats of its powerlessness
".
What, in any case, to mortify the Minister of Culture.
Roselyne Bachelot who fought - in vain - to obtain the reopening of the venues on December 15 has just taken her "
way of the cross
",
formula
Le Parisien
.
Which newspaper notes this disillusioned remark from the minister in charge of this angry sector: "
Culture provides life, but prevention policies prevent dying
".
Roselyne Bachelot is therefore under pressure. But it is not the only one ... Even if they are formulated with covered words, Jean Castex too, is more and more under fire from the critics
:
Mezza voce, reproaches indeed leak in the press, even emanating from members of the government.
In Le Parisien, this morning, a minister thus confesses: “
One evening a week, we have the Covid interministerial meeting and sometimes we go into gruesome details.
This is wrong
”;
while a secretary of state in the same newspaper declares it: "
It's hell, it's too sectoral, it's ridiculous
".
Critics "
which also fall on the number one of the cabinet
(of the Prime Minister):
Nicolas Revel
", complete
Le Parisien
.
According to this daily, the all-powerful and very Macronist Chief of Staff of Jean Castex is "
in the process of recruiting a right-hand man, preferably a woman and has already auditioned many candidates
".
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