According to the finance bill, on January 1, 2023, the State will no longer grant export guarantees for fossil fuels operating projects.
Le Monde with AFP
France will stop, from the 1 er 2023, to grant guarantees to export for new projects to exploit fossil fuels, according to the finance bill (PLF) for 2023, presented Monday September 26 in the Council of Ministers. The government thus confirms a commitment made to the COP26 of Glasgow (Scotland) in November 2021.
The end of these guarantees – comparable to insurance covering for example the poor execution of a contract or the default of the foreign partner – concerns “the entire value chain of all fossil fuels, From the exploration-production upstream, until downstream refining, including transport and storage “, according to the budgetary documents consulted by the France-Presse agency.
France had announced, in October 2020, the end of these aids for petroleum projects in 2025 and gas in 2035. It had then suffered many criticisms from environmental NGOs, which judged this disengagement too slow and put In custody against an acceleration of climate change.
“Very good news”
A year later, faced with the international pressure and the criticisms of these NGOs, France had joined a coalition of countries committing, during COP26, to put an end at the end of 2022 at the Funding abroad of fossil fuels, thus joining nations like the United States or Germany.
This text, however, provided for exceptions, especially if the projects were accompanied by the implementation of carbon capture and storage techniques. The NGO The Friends of the Earth feared “very important flaws” in the initiative of the Executive if it resumed such an exception, but “this is not the case”, welcomed the Agency France-Presse Anna-Lena Rebaud, who described the measure as “very good news” and even “decisive advance”.
Only downside: “As it stands, politics still helps support gas and petroleum power plants, on the pretext that it could serve the energy transition of developing countries, said the activist. For us, C ‘ is an argument that does not hold, to the extent that investing today in this type of infrastructure is to lock developing countries in the consumption of oil and gas for years. “The NGO therefore plans amendments to fill this gap.
Despite this device, the 2023 budget “is still leaning on the side of fossil fuels,” said the Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire on Monday, because the government has chosen to “protect” the French Faced with the energy crisis. “There is a lot of expenses for the gas bill,” he said, adding that this “can only strengthen our determination to accelerate climate transition”.