The economy today
Presidential election: the energy debate dominated by the consequences of the war
Audio 03:43
There were nearly 32,000 marching through the streets of Paris on March 12, 2022 so that the climate would be taken more into account in the presidential campaign.
AFP - ALAIN JOCARD
By: Dominique Baillard Follow
3 mins
With less than a week to go before the first round of the presidential election, a close-up on the energy file.
The climate emergency could have imposed this subject in the campaign but it is above all the soaring prices that made it unavoidable.
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The war in Ukraine has caused the price of fuels, the gas bill to explode, and by extension that of electricity.
All the candidates therefore have solutions to lighten the bill.
Anne Hidalgo, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Eric Zemmour want to block prices and have producers endorse the increase.
Marine Le Pen wants to lower the taxes collected by the State.
Emmanuel Macron has already acted as president by freezing the price of gas for the whole year, limiting the increase in electricity to 4% and offering a rebate at the pump since this Friday, April 1.
All these measures are part of the defense of purchasing power, but they do not in themselves constitute an energy policy
Are they compatible with the objective of carbon neutrality in 2050?
They are rather counterproductive to lowering carbon emissions deplore energy policy experts, a protected price does not encourage spending less, while sobriety is part of the solution to lowering carbon emissions.
Instead, energy prices should be increased to send the right signal, that of lower consumption.
But since the Yellow Vests movement, any rise in energy is seen as socially explosive and therefore politically unsustainable.
The price freeze will also discourage producers, in the medium term this will therefore aggravate the price problem.
Finally, it does not take into account price inequalities,
The war in Ukraine has also brought the issue of energy independence back into the center of the debate.
France must now review its supply choices in the light of geopolitics.
Yannick Jadot, the environmental candidate, disputes, for example, replacing Russian gas with American shale gas, the same story with Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the candidate of the radical left.
In France, where there is no oil, nuclear power is the bedrock of national sovereignty.
The power stations today supply 70% of the electricity.
With the increase in demand generated by the electric car, it will only be 50% in 2050. Hence the return of the debate on the future of nuclear power.
With on one side the pros: a motley group ranging from Marine le Pen and Eric Zemmour for the far right to the communist Fabien Roussel via Emmanuel Macron and the candidate of the Republicans Valérie Pécresse.
Opposite, Anne Hidalgo,
These three candidates also advocate a strong increase in renewable energies.
Overall, all the candidates subscribe to it.
With sometimes caveats;
the far-right candidates both reject wind power and vaguely advocate geothermal and hydropower, even though these modes of production will never be able to generate as much energy as wind power.
Emmanuel Macron brought up to date the idea of planning to accelerate the implementation of renewable energy projects.
The ideas are there, but they are still magical thinking, deplore the experts on climate issues, with very few proposals on the financing and human resources to achieve this.
However, there is urgency: France is the only European country to be behind in its renewable energy objectives.
... © FMM Graphic Studio
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Economy
Presidential France 2022