Lhe appointment of the government of Gabriel Attal, on January 11, could have the consequence of further delaying ecological and energy planning as well as its concrete implementation, while the middle of the decade, decisive for the climate according to scientists, approaches .
The government plans to link energy to the Ministry of the Economy as part of the revival of the nuclear industry. This demotion from a full ministry to a delegated ministry, while the reduction in our greenhouse gas emissions is still not up to the level of the climate emergency, creates additional difficulties.
This decision seems to neglect the fact that energy and climate issues – and more generally environmental issues – are intrinsically linked and can no longer be thought of separately. To understand this, just look at the fifty levers identified by the General Secretariat for Ecological Planning to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, the overwhelming majority of which is energy-related. However, if ministerial responsibilities are easily transferable politically, the same is not true of administrations, whose organization is built over years.
This reshuffle risks undermining the effectiveness of administrations serving France’s public energy-climate policies. Since 2007 and the creation of a “super-ministry” of the environment including energy and the transport, building and development sectors, State services have been organized to carry out the development of energy and climate policies.
Intertwined
In 2008, the Directorate General for Energy and Climate (DGEC) was created. It is now the administrative arm of the State’s energy and climate action. Within this body, energy and climate are intertwined to such an extent that we cannot unravel them without starting from scratch. For example, the energy savings and renewable heat office, which acts on two major levers to achieve our climate objectives, is part of the climate department.
Energy issues have also been integrated into environmental issues in decentralized State services for around fifteen years: between 2009 and 2011, the regional directorates for the environment, planning and housing (DREAL) were created; in 2010, it was the departmental territorial directorates (DDT) which completed the picture. They are operational for the implementation of public energy and climate policies.
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