Paris (AFP)
The deputies adopted Thursday in committee the principle of a royalty on mineral nitrogenous fertilizers considered as important generators of greenhouse gases, since their reduction trajectory would not be respected for two years by the farmers.
The measure, voted by the special committee reviewing the climate bill, aims to "achieve the objective of reducing ammonia emissions by 13% by 2030 compared to 2005 and the objective of reducing by 15% of nitrous oxide emissions in 2030 compared to 2015 ".
The government has not yet decided on the downward path and the base of the hypothetical tax.
They will be the subject of regulatory texts after the promulgation of the law.
The executive also hopes that such measures will first be adopted at European level.
The supporters of articles 62 and 63 of the bill which frame the measure had to face the crossfire of the deputies wishing to go further and more quickly in the taxation of these fertilizers and those who consider that it "is not an effective solution ".
To the former, such Mathilde Panot (LFI) who denounced "an unacceptable renunciation of what the citizens' convention demanded" or Cédric Villani (ex-LREM), the co-rapporteur Célia de Lavergne said her refusal to set up "a royalty so that we punish them right away ".
“I believe in their capacity for change,” she said of the farmers.
The discussion was sometimes more tense with the defenders of the agricultural sector, in particular between the Modem Nicolas Turquois and the president of the commission Laurence Maillart-Méhaignerie.
"Let's stop demonizing farmers and their practices," lamented the member for Vienna, who is also himself a farmer.
"Once again, a Franco-French tax on mineral fertilizers is not an effective solution", regretted the deputy LREM and former Minister of Agriculture Stéphane Travert.
Opponents of the measure made an appointment with the government during the examination of the text in plenary in the hemicycle from March 29.
grd / cg / swi
© 2021 AFP