Emmanuel Macron at La Sorbonne, Paris. Source: POOL/AFP
Last December, for the second anniversary of the Paris Agreement on climate change, the One Planet Summit took place. Convened by the French president himself, this summit brought new announcements in different areas from “businesses addressing climate risk, through governments expanding carbon pricing, to sovereign wealth funds divesting from fossil fuels, and mobilising youth to take action” as described in The National.
Since then, Macron has announced 700 million euros to fund solar projects. The French president’s pledge took place earlier this month during a meeting of the “International Solar Alliance” in India. The 700 million euros are intended to speed up the global transition to a low-carbon economy through loans and donations for funding solar power projects in developing countries.
Although Macron has the support of the government to carry out his agenda, he is facing difficulties with the strong French syndicates (mainly related to his controversial economic reforms) which are hurting his popularity.
Nonetheless, the French president has championed policies to combat climate change since his election. He seems to be keeping on track by reiterating that France will almost double the pricing for carbon emitted by the end of 2022 and also by willingly set an EU minimum price for carbon. Macron has also mentioned that the EU should target 40% of their budget towards a transition to a green economy, allowing it to be “ambitious rather than measured”.