Christophe Béchu appointed to represent France in Azerbaijan

2024-01-13 09:51:00

As a reminder, during COP28 in Dubai, discussions were entrusted in the previous government to the Minister of Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher.

The ecological transition taken up by Bercy

But Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, regained the energy portfolio thanks to the recent reshuffle. A choice with heavy meanings. « The government chooses a narrative where energy is approached through the prism of industrial sovereignty rather than through the sole prism of the fight once morest global warming. », explained Phuc Vinh Nguyen, researcher on European and French energy policies within the Energy Center of the Jacques Delors Institute, to La Tribune on Friday.

Reshuffle: why Bercy recovered the energy in its portfolio

« Having responsibility for energy means giving yourself the best chance of accelerating the reindustrialization of the country and the realization of the French nuclear program. », welcomed Thursday, in Le FigaroBruno Le Maire. The executive therefore preferred to return to the configuration which prevailed before 2007 and the establishment by Nicolas Sarkozy, at the end of the Grenelle de l’environnement, of a super ministry of ecology bringing together energy, housing, transport and even biodiversity. “ At the time, the idea was to say that we also had to think regarding energy through the prism of ecology, since it is one of the main causes of greenhouse gas emissions. », Specifies Arnaud Gossé, then spokesperson for France Nature Environnement. After a brief stint with Alain Juppé, Jean-Louis Borloo became “superminister” of ecology.

Reshuffle: the challenges of the Attal government

Many questions still remain unanswered following the reshuffle. Who will lead the negotiations relating to the objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 at European level? Who, once more, will pilot the next national low carbon strategy? If things are becoming clearer little by little, the supervision of the Directorate General for Energy and Climate (DGEC), a key administration, remains to be determined, for example. Decrees of attribution must clarify in the days to come the distribution of tasks between the various ministries.

The COPs, major events for the climate

The appointment of Christophe Béchu at COP29 should not be overlooked. And for good reason, the event is major for the global ecological transition.

As a reminder, COP28 in the United Arab Emirates at the end of 2023 resulted in a historic agreement paving the way for the gradual abandonment of fossil fuels, the main causes of global warming. Lagreement approved by consensus calls on the world to “transition out” (“transitioning away” in English) from fossil fuels. But he does not speak, as demanded by more than a hundred countries and many NGOs, of « sortie » of these energies (“phase out” in English), this term acting as a red flag for certain oil-producing states in particular. It also contains loopholes for countries wishing to continue the exploitation of their hydrocarbon reserves.

Climate: COP28 reinforces the strategy of oil and gas groups

An agreement which is therefore criticized by many scientists. This text “isn’t really convincing”, Judge Michael Mann, climatologist and geophysicist at the University of Pennsylvania. The agreement “is welcomed as a compromise, but we need to be very clear regarding what has been compromised,” insists Friederike Otto, climatologist specializing in the analysis of the role of climate change on certain extreme weather phenomena. “The short-term financial interests of a few have once once more trumped the health, lives and livelihoods of most people on this planet,” she castigates.

The next conference of the parties will therefore have a crucial role. Financing the transition away from fossil fuels, particularly in developing countries, will be one of the priorities of COP29. But already, the first criticisms are coming out becausehe president of the future event, the Azerbaijani Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, Mukhtar Babayev, is a former senior executive of the Azeri national oil and gas company. For the second year in a row, an executive from the oil sector will chair the UN climate conference.