Measures that sin by their "reduced scope".

The High Council for the Climate (HCC) regretted, in its new report published Tuesday, February 23, that the government did not go further in its bill on the climate and called on the parliament to "rectify the situation".   

The measures of the text "Climate and Resilience", the main tool for deploying the proposals of the Citizen's Convention for the Climate (CCC), "go in the right direction, but the bill does not offer sufficient strategic scope", summed up the president of the HCC, Corinne Le Quéré, during a press conference.

As in its previous opinions on the recovery plan, 5G or housing, the independent evaluation body created by Emmanuel Macron is not kind to the government's climate policy, highlighting the gap between the reduction target 40% greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 (compared to 1990) and the measures taken to achieve it.

"A high proportion [of the measures of the bill] sees its scope reduced by a limited scope of application, even one-off, lengthened implementation deadlines or many conditions associated with their application," said the new report.

In its sights, the ban on advertising limited to fossil fuels and not "to a set of goods and services clearly incompatible with the transition" (SUV, certain food products ...).

Or the ban on domestic flights if there is a direct rail link of less than two and a half hours, a limit "much too low" (10% of air traffic in 2019).

As for the building sector (nearly 20% of emissions), the bill provides for a ban on the rental of "thermal strainers".

But the measures "do not apply to owner-occupants" (ie 58% of the occupants of strainers in 2018) and "do not provide for a gradual extension to other energy classes", worries the HCC.

"Missed opportunities"

He therefore pleads for the establishment of a "renovation obligation trajectory" extending until 2050, the date targeted by the government to achieve carbon neutrality.

While the current decade is "crucial" to put in place structural reforms compatible with climate goals, the bill represents "missed opportunities to accelerate the pace" of ecological transition, insisted Corinne Le Quéré, stressing that "France [was] behind" in the objectives it has set itself.

>> Read also: France could experience an extreme climate by the end of the century

Thus, the first 2015-2018 carbon budget was not respected - the State has also just been recognized responsible for breaches by the administrative justice.

CO2 emissions have fallen on average by 1.2% per year over the last five years, but "the current momentum for reducing emissions is still insufficient", warned the HCC.

Admittedly, with -1.7%, the reduction in emissions in 2019 exceeded the objectives of the second carbon budget (-1.5% per year between 2019 and 2023), but its ceiling had been relaxed after the failure to comply with the previous, recalls Corinne Le Quéré.

The climatologist was particularly concerned about the ability to "triple" the rate of decline planned for the 3rd carbon budget 2024-2028, when certain measures are planned after 2024, or even in 2030.

So we must "straighten out" by integrating a strategic approach into the law, she pleaded, counting on the examination of the text in Parliament.

"Lack of transparency"

The High Council thus invites "to shorten and clarify the time horizon" of certain measures and "to widen" those having "a structuring potential so that they relate to significant volumes of emissions".

The government assured in its impact study that the Climate law would make it possible to "secure" between half and two-thirds of the objective of reducing emissions by 2030.

But the HCC report points to a "lack of transparency on the methods and assumptions used" in the study and "certain inconsistencies in the evaluations".

The very name of the future law does not find favor in his eyes.

The term “resilience” specifically refers to adaptation to the impacts of climate change, an “extremely limited” aspect in the text (2 specific measures out of the 69 articles).

The 150 citizens of the Climate Convention are meeting from Friday for their last session intended to assess the executive's response to their 149 proposals, including this bill.

With AFP

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