Ihe President of the Republic has justified by “too great economic and financial risks” his choice to impose a pension reform refused by three out of four French people. More than the balance of the pay-as-you-go system, it is undoubtedly the foreign trade deficit and the public debt that are in its sights, the first contributing to widening the second.
pension reform, 10 billion to 13 billion euros in annual savings are expected, while the trade deficit has increased from 65 billion to 164 billion euros between 2020 and 2022. According to the Minister for Foreign Trade, “more than 80% of the worsening of the deficit is explained by the increase in the energy bill, which rose from 45 billion to 115 billion between 2020 and 2022”. In question, the prices of gas, oil and electricity, against a backdrop of war in Ukraine.
To sustainably reduce this deficit, we must produce more electricity on our soil, to electrify buildings, industries and transport, and thus reduce and then eliminate imports of fossil fuels. For this, we can rely on wind and solar energy. Especially since, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states in its latest report, solar and wind power occupy first and third place in the hit parade of solutions for controlling climate change. climate change, and are those that offer the greatest potential at zero cost.
State funding
What about nuclear? Of course, we must extend the life of our reactors as long as safety allows. But new nuclear reactors won’t produce electricity until 2035 at the earliest. The obvious risks of delays and additional costs in construction are scaring away investors: new reactors can only be financed from public funds. If they can eventually help reduce the trade deficit, they will first increase the public debt.
Wind and solar do not have these disadvantages. These renewable energies are financed by money from investors, small and large, private or solidarity-based, and low-rate loans, as banks are guaranteed to be reimbursed. Since mid-2021, they have been producing electricity at a price below the market price. Wind power in the lead, they therefore finance the State, a contribution provisionally estimated by the Energy Regulatory Commission at more than 30 billion euros in 2022 and 2023.
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