The French National Assembly’s vote on the amendment relating to the moratorium on wind and solar power comes at a time when the government was due to clarify its climate roadmap for the period 2025-2035.
This moratorium condemns any new renewable energy projects.

Concretely, several consequences:
The electrification of uses, which indicates that the longer-term greater share of electricity in the daily lives of the French, is being called into question. The global trend toward more intensive use of electricity to replace fossil fuels would no longer pass through France. This global trend involves a greater contribution from wind and solar power in electricity production at the expense of fossil fuels. This also means using electricity as soon as possible to replace fossil fuels. The typical case is the electric vehicle instead of the combustion engine vehicle. This dynamic would be called into question.

This moratorium, if confirmed during the vote on the entire text and after passage in the Senate, would pose a problem as to France’s ability to meet its commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
This reduction, if it continues, remains far from the target set for 2030.
In 2023, the reduction in emissions was -5.8%, it will only be -1.8% in 2024. To achieve the target of -55% in 2030 compared to 1990, the reduction for the coming years would need to be 5% per year.

2023 was a year of significant emissions declines, but this primarily reflected the resumption of production at nuclear power plants. Recall the very difficult situation in 2022, when many power plants were shut down. When production resumed, emissions automatically declined. In 2024, the effect is significantly less significant, with the production gap being much smaller.
Another point highlighted by INSEE is the cyclical nature of emissions. In 2024, the cycle was not very robust. As a result, industrial production, which was not particularly dynamic, contributed to the decline in emissions, but it is clear that a possible recovery in activity would result in a rapid recovery in emissions.

Therefore, the moratorium, by favoring the use of fossil fuels to the detriment of renewables, further undermines the possibility of meeting the 2030 commitments and the 2050 carbon neutrality commitment. To achieve this neutrality, it is absolutely essential to be frugal, to drastically reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and to replace them with renewable energies. Otherwise, the +4 degree scenario will be inevitable.
We cannot tolerate such a scenario for reasons that have more to do with electoralism than with a precise analysis of the needs of the French economy and society.