I am in this post exploring the first report of France’s High Council on Climate Change published on June 17th, 2019.

The High Council is an independent body created by the decree of 14 May 2019 to issue opinions and recommendations on the implementation of public policies and measures to reduce France's greenhouse gas emissions, in line with its international commitments, in particular the Paris Agreement and the achievement of carbon neutrality in 2050. It is chaired by French-Canadian climate scientist Corinne Le Quéré and composed of ten members chosen for their expertise in the fields of climate science, economics, agronomy and energy transition.

Point #1 – Not all carbon neutrality claims are equal

Facing political resistance from some parties, governments are committing their countries to carbon neutrality at different horizons (Norway in 2030; Sweden in 2045; France, UK, New Zealand in 2050), but these may mean extremely different things for each of them.

Everyone should keep them in check and make sure the gap between “what it sounds like” and “what it actually is” is not too large.

Factors influencing this:

✔️ Inclusion of Greenhouse gas emissions (CO2 vs CO2+CH4+N2O)

✔️ Scope of emissions (e.g. inclusion of international transportation - flights and maritime) and imports (e.g. embedded carbon of products consumed in a country)

✔️ Use of international credits (i.e. possibility to outsource emission reductions)

The recently published report of the French committee on climate change in charge of keeping check of the government progress in terms of climate change makes a useful read in this regard.

Point #2 - Carbon border tax regulation can be used to avoid environmental dumping!

According to the first report of the French committee on climate change, French’s people carbon footprint has increased by 20% since 1995.

Even though domestic emissions have decreased by 20%, what happened is that emission related to imported have doubled Since 1995 and keep increasing. 🚛

🥐 In 2015, a French person carbon footprint was 11 tCO2e, including 6,6t CO2e domestically and 4.4% generated abroad.

Proposals for carbon border tax regulation makes sense in this context: avoid environmental dumping! Hence the environmental outcry over the free trade agreement with Mercosur.

Point #3 - In France, funding for climate-damaging activities remained higher than that of climate-friendly activities. Always consider one amount from the perspective of another.

In 2018, climate-damaging investments were almost twice as high as climate-friendly ones.

👎 While "climate investments" (public and private) increased over the period of the first carbon budget (2015-2018) to reach €41.4 billion in 2018, climate-damaging investments reached €75 billion (in 2017), stagnating over the last few years.

Positive investments: buildings (€20.7 billion), transport (€12.7 billion), energy (€6.7 billion), industry (€1 billion) and agriculture (€0.4 billion).

Negative investments: mainly from the purchase of fossil fuels powered vehicles.

According to OECD, fossil fuel subsidies in France have more than doubled in 10 years, from less than €3 billion in 2007 to €6 billion in 2017.

Point #4 – The social dimension of climate change is at least as important as the scientific one.

The challenges to overcome are the ones of resources, social equity and education:

✔️ Poor management of the transition to a lower-carbon economy will penalise lower-income households, leading to protests and unproductive actions (e.g. a carbon tax will penalise fossil fuel heating system owners). The yellow vests movement has illustrated this with colours;

✔️ The social dimension is much more challenging to track and very few indicators are being tracked;

✔️ In France, 23% of people do not believe climate change is real; 36% of 18-24 years old people;

✔️ In France, 12% of 18-24 years old people are not willing to make any effort to avoid climate change to worsen;

✔️ Since mitigation has not been ambitious enough, climate change adaptation (actions taken to manage impacts of the change by reducing vulnerability and exposure to its harmful effects) has to be integrated to policies.

Report: Agir en cohérence avec les ambitions, High Committee on Climate Change. 2019.

Link: https://www.strategie.gouv.fr/sites/strategie.gouv.fr/files/atoms/files/hcc_rapport_annuel_2019.pdf