France holds cross-party talks on ecological transition
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00:00 Let's come back to Paris now, where there's a meeting today at Matignon
00:03 between the French Prime Minister, Elizabeth Bourne,
00:05 and the heads of the political parties here in France.
00:07 Environment issues are also on the agenda there.
00:11 And our Clovis Gasali is with me on set to talk a bit more about this.
00:14 Clovis, what's this meeting all about?
00:15 Why are we talking about this?
00:16 Because it's basically a repeat of what President Emmanuel Macron
00:19 did a few weeks back in Seine-Saint-Denis, outside of Paris, when he invited,
00:23 you remember, all the heads of the political parties here in France for a meeting.
00:29 They were supposed to last an afternoon.
00:31 It lasted 12 hours.
00:32 The idea was to talk about all kinds of issues.
00:35 And also for President Macron, bridge differences, win over opposition
00:40 members in order to pass laws in Parliament, because Emmanuel Macron's
00:45 party does not hold an absolute majority in Parliament.
00:49 So this is basically a repeat, except that it's at Matignon,
00:53 so hosted by Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne.
00:55 And it's about the environmental planning, as we say here in France.
01:01 Basically, talk about what kind of environmental issues
01:05 can be put forward by the government in the coming months
01:08 and also possibly be passed in Parliament.
01:11 The last meeting I was mentioning in Seine-Saint-Denis with Emmanuel Macron,
01:16 all the heads of political parties attended it.
01:18 This time, the leader or one of the leaders of France on board,
01:22 the far left or radical left party, the party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
01:26 While Emmanuel Bonpart, that leader, decided not to turn up.
01:29 He said this is yet another communications operation
01:34 which won't produce any result.
01:36 Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne has just said on Twitter, X the network.
01:41 She's just said that this is irresponsible and incoherent.
01:45 And the left wing leaders as a whole don't really seem convinced by this
01:49 meeting or by the government's will to carry out real green measures.
01:54 Let's take a listen to Marine Tendelier.
01:56 She's the head of the Green Party here in France.
01:59 And this is an interview of her just before the meeting.
02:01 If we don't save living creatures, if we don't ensure that our planet
02:07 is livable, then it's pointless to talk about objectives
02:10 regarding our institutions, our society or world politics.
02:13 Even if we don't agree, it won't mean a thing if we don't save the environment.
02:17 I think the government realized how anachronistic and old fashioned
02:20 it was to forget the environment.
02:22 So today is a catch up session.
02:25 Clovis, do you know more about what the government actually has in mind
02:28 when it comes to environmental policies, what it's considering?
02:31 So no announcements today, but next week, probably Monday,
02:35 Emmanuel Macron is going to make a major announcement
02:37 to unveil this roadmap of measures to come.
02:41 But advisers of the Prime Minister, Elizabeth Bourne, say that
02:45 there are several possibilities.
02:47 France first has to meet EU standards of a 55 percent decrease
02:53 in carbon emissions by 2030, a 55 percent decrease compared to 1990.
03:00 The goal, of course, is carbon neutrality by 2050.
03:04 Ambitious project, indeed.
03:07 And then there's also the plan to increase the number of electric cars.
03:10 For the time being in France, it is believed that there's only one percent
03:14 of electric cars when you look at the total number of cars,
03:18 not just those being sold, but also the total number
03:20 numbers of cars in the country.
03:22 So how is he going to do that?
03:24 Go from one percent to a target of 15 percent of electric cars by 2030.
03:29 Well, with financial incentives, possibly tax breaks.
03:33 That's what they usually do.
03:34 And the opposition wants even stronger measures than that,
03:37 especially the left wing, then the opposition as a whole, not that united.
03:42 For instance, the right wing party say environmental is important.
03:47 Environmental issues are important.
03:50 But what they really want, the right wing,
03:52 they want a conference on energy prices, because, of course,
03:56 here in France, like in the rest of the world, energy, gas,
04:00 heating, all these electric bills, prices are soaring, going up.
04:05 And that's why the right wing wants that to be really the focus.
04:08 And then you've got the Green Party, of course, who says
04:11 we want this decisive measures, strong measures,
04:14 because the planet is in danger and we need radical measures undertaken.
04:21 And then you've got other parties, notably the communists, saying
04:24 what we what we really want is lower prices of petrol
04:29 and other energies deemed clean.
04:31 So how does all of that work?
04:33 It's tricky. How do you do that?
04:35 How do you lower living costs, but also protect the environment?
04:38 It's not an easy balance unless some experts say
04:42 the government manages to really invest massively in renewable energies,
04:46 green energies, this in order for the public not to bear the cost.
04:51 And that's why you've got many voices in France basically saying
04:54 we need a strong leader, someone like Macron to really embody,
04:58 to carry a strong plan to reform the country,
05:02 to carry out ambitious green policies.
05:05 You need someone with the power of Emmanuel Macron,
05:08 someone who will give the direction, convince the French people
05:12 that they're not going to be penalized by all of these measures,
05:15 but it's actually on the long term and even on the medium term,
05:18 on the medium run,
05:21 win from this situation with greener energy.