The climate and resilience law was promulgated on August 24, 2021. It marks a major turning point in many areas, including renewable energies. A paradigm shift? Perhaps not completely, but in any case a kick in the industrial anthill. All that remains is to wait for the implementing decrees with their carrots and sticks. Back to some hot news.
In the same way that founding laws on press freedom or secularism rooted essential principles in the Republic at the dawn of the 20th century.e century, the law resulting from the work of the Citizens’ Climate Convention will permanently anchor ecology in our contemporary society. This text has already innovated in the way in which laws can be constructed, drawing on an unprecedented experience of participatory democracy. It will also allow us to transform our model of society and growth and initiate profound changes. With this law, the ecological cause will integrate the daily life of the French and will support them sustainably in their choices of travel, housing, consumption and production. It is a law which aims to cross the “last kilometer” of the transition, the most crucial: the one which leads to truly changing our lifestyles. This text aims precisely at this, by bringing ecology to the heart of the French model and by concretely irrigating French society in its most fundamental aspects: school, public services, business life, justice, but also housing and town planning, advertising, mobility to get to work or on vacation. This law will not only act on the structures of the economy to accelerate decarbonization, it will innervate our culture, by promoting environmental education, responsible advertising, more sober consumption,” indicated Barbara Pompili, Minister of Ecological Transition during the promulgation of the climate and resilience law on August 24, 2021.
Mobility turned upside down
And certainly there will be significant changes in mobility, for example with the end of the circulation of the most polluting cars in 45 large cities from 2025 and especially the ban on the sale of cars emitting more than 95 g of CO2/km in 2030 (except professional exceptions), thus setting a trajectory towards the end of the commercialization of thermal vehicles. To be fully effective, this measure will also be taken to the European level.
The law also provides for the expansion of the deployment of fast charging stations on expressways and motorways with coverage of connection costs at 75% until 2025.
As for heavy goods vehicles, the law provides for ambitious measures, both at national and local level, in order to optimize road transport of goods and reduce its emissions. The text sets in particular an objective of progressive elimination of the tax advantage on the internal consumption tax on energy products (TICPE) between 2023 and 2030, or even gives the possibility to regions which suffer a deferral of traffic due to a contribution introduced in a neighboring territory to implement a specific contribution on the road transport of goods on their road network from 2024. It also makes regular training in eco-driving compulsory for road hauliers in order to reduce emissions of each journey. Furthermore, it sets targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transport used by companies upstream and downstream of their activities. Finally, the text establishes a target for the end of sales of heavy-duty thermal trucks in 2040, thus giving for the first time a perspective as to the end of their marketing. There is a tax on professional diesel. A fraction of this is reimbursed by the State when this diesel is used by heavy road transport vehicles. In this law, the State sets itself the objective of gradually increasing the tax on professional diesel in order to encourage the renewal of the road fleet. All airlines operating flights within metropolitan France will have to compensate for the emissions linked to these flights. This measure will make it possible to compensate for emissions from the sector that could not be avoided, by financing nature protection projects, in France and abroad, such as the development of forests or agroecology. All these measures should contribute to the development of low-carbon transport, particularly with green hydrogen.
These changes will be in the details: for example, advertising for fossil fuels will soon be banned, as will advertising for vehicles emitting more than 95 g of CO.2 per kilometer. This will notably prohibit massive campaigns to sell off stocks of the most polluting vehicles before the end of their marketing scheduled for… 2030! It will also be mandatory to indicate the climate impact of products in advertisements, with immediate application in the automobile and household appliances sectors. The practices of greenwashing are not defined in French legislation. THE greenwashing will be clearly assimilated to a deceptive commercial practice and punished even more harshly.
A regionalized PPE
On the renewable energy side, the law plans to involve citizens and territories in their development. Observation: France’s objective is to produce 40% of its electricity with renewable energies by 2030. Achieving such an objective will not be possible without the support of the French and communities. To act, the law allows the regionalization of national objectives, indicates the ministry, in order to adapt the production of renewable energy as close as possible to the territory. It also facilitates the development of citizen energy projects which mobilize the savings of local residents on local projects, thus contributing to their acceptability while generating economic benefits for the region. The development of photovoltaic electricity production will be boosted by the law, which provides for the obligation to install photovoltaics or green roofs during the construction, extension or major renovation of all buildings for commercial use, industrial or artisanal of more than 500 m², and more than 1,000 m² for office buildings.
Furthermore, an article provides for a regional variation of the objectives of the PPE, after consultation with the regions. The regional plans for planning, sustainable development and territorial equality (SRADDET) will thus set an objective for the development of renewable energies and recovery. This objective and the resulting rules must be compatible with the corresponding objectives of the PPE. This regionalization of objectives will both give visibility to project leaders, promote their development and ensure that the addition of regional objectives makes it possible to achieve the national objective. Regional energy committees will also be established to promote consultation on these issues, in particular with local authorities in order to have better territorial planning for the development of renewable energies. The SRADDETs will now set a development objective for these energies compatible with the objectives of the PPE.
Another, more general measure, the text will strengthen public procurement clauses by translating environmental concerns into the requirements of the contract. These criteria, which take into account environmental performance, will be part of the conditions of calls for tender, including for concessions. “This law thus complements and accelerates the major laws of this five-year term on ecology, such as the agriculture and food law, the energy climate law, the mobility orientation law or even the anti-waste law for a circular economy; as well as the recovery plan, which includes an unprecedented amount of 30 billion euros in green investments over the next two years. Our country is now adopting a transformation law around seven major themes: consuming, producing and working, traveling, housing, eating, strengthening judicial protection of the environment and improving climate and environmental governance,” said concluded the Minister of Ecological Transition.
More specific measures concerning hydrogen have been studied by the France Hydrogène association, which gives us the main points in the following pages.
