In 2007, with France lagging behind other European countries in the fight against climate change, the President Nicolas Sarkozy's government decided to give a new impetus to sustainable development. He seemed ambitious and even talked about a 'New Green Deal'.
A wide consultation with civil society followed, the so-called 'Grenelle de l’Environnement', which led to a 2009 law setting out the principles and objectives that France should follow. The law was adopted almost unanimously by the French parliament. A second law, Grenelle 2, will establish concrete measures for achieving the initial objectives and should be adopted very soon.
On 20 June, EU member states adopted the 'Europe 2020' strategy for growth and jobs. The new strategy includes the '20/20/20' targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions and renewable energies outlined in the EU's climate and energy package, but also allows for a possible further increase in emission reductions – to 30% – if the European Commission sees this as attainable.
The EU's 20/20/20 objectives on greenhouse gas emissions and energy efficiency were integrated into Grenelle 1 and were not called into question by the political parties. Regarding the 20% objective of renewable energy sources, France decided to go further and established a target of 23%. Measures dedicated to implementing this goal are contained in Grenelle 2.
While political consensus emerged during Grenelle 1, Grenelle 2 sparked fierce debate. The socialist and green opposition accused the majority of backtracking on some ambitious measures due to pressure from lobbyists wanting looser regulation. This setback would not enable France to meet its EU objectives, they claimed.
A deputy minister in charge of ecology, Chantal Jouanno, even expressed disappointment after the vote and immediately called for a third law to go further in ''revising our growth pattern''.
However, Jean-Louis Borloo, the minister in charge of the issue, supported the law and claimed that Grenelle 1 ''was not called into question''.
Controversial issues
The government was severely criticised on its proposals for meeting its EU target of producing 23% of French energy from renewable sources. While Grenelle 1 set the target of 25,000 MW of wind energy by 2020, it was accused of preventing any further development of the wind sector by increasing administrative processes, for example by multiplying the number of authorisations required to build windmills.
Windmills now have to be registered under the so-called 'ICPE' standard, which is used for high-risk sites. On his blog, environmental lawyer Arnaud Gossement lamented this change and warned that the number of appeals against windmills could rise and therefore prevent their development. On the contrary, UMP member Patrick Ollier insisted the party was ''not against wind energy but in favour of organised and regulated development''.
Improving energy efficiency by 20% was also a major priority of Grenelle 2. Various measures have been adopted to ''encourage the construction of energy efficient buildings,'' such as the creation of assessment procedures to monitor whether the standards defined are being adhered to.
France Nature Environnement (FNE), an NGO, expressed its satisfaction with the measure, but regretted that so-called 'grey energy' was not taken into account (the amount of energy used for a building's construction, including the extraction of the raw materials).
Olivier Louchard, head of Réseau Action Climat, another NGO, expressed his disappointment that no regulation on renovating old buildings was adopted – a major issue since they are often dilapidated and are thus big emitters.
The final objective, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% compared to 1990 levels, will be tackled by many measures. Regarding transport, Grenelle 2 incorporated the Eurovignette Directive into national law, which sets tolls for heavy goods vehicles.
While this was welcomed by FNE, the association is deeply sceptical about the other measures. ''The renunciation of carbon tax is a very bad signal'', it stated.
Greenpeace went further, declaring that the ''abandonment of the carbon tax buries the Grenelle".
FNE was also very critical about the implementation of a kilometre-based tax on heavy goods vehicles, which was postponed until 2012 – ''a worrying signal on which FNE will remain more than watchful''.
