News
13 Jun 2025, 15:30
Juliette Portala
|
France

Dispatch from France | June '25

The French government, which has still not fully recovered from the political chaos caused by last June’s dissolution of the National Assembly, now faces a number of difficult discussions of its revised energy plan for the next decade. The talks are potentially fraught with challenges as the plans are far from winning unanimous support. Meanwhile, the massive blackout that parts of France’s territory suffered, alongside Spain and Portugal, has started a debate about the country’s ability to maintain grid stability when demand for electricity falls short of solar and wind power production – even as the cause of the outage has yet to be announced.

***Our weekly Dispatches provide an overview of the most relevant recent and upcoming developments for the shift to climate neutrality in selected European countries, from policy and diplomacy to society and industry. For a bird's-eye view of the country's climate-friendly transition, read the respective 'Guide to'.***

Stories to watch in the weeks ahead

The latest from France – last month in recap

  • Clean energy: So far in 2025, France’s clean energy output has risen to six-year highs, with combined generation from nuclear, solar, wind and hydropower plants recording their highest output since 2019. French power producers generated some 95 percent of the country’s electricity supply from clean sources, which exceeds clean power production in many other European nations by far.
  • Direction change: Luc Rémont, the head of EDF, was dismissed before the end of his term in July on the back of conflicts with the state and complaints from large industrial clients over rising electricity costs. The candidacy of Bernard Fontana, senior executive vice-president in charge of the company’s industry and services unit, was approved in principle in late April.
  • Ocean protection: Ahead of the United Nations summit in Nice, France, on ocean emergency in early June,  president Emmanuel Macron vowed to defend the work of scientists and pushed other countries to ratify the High Seas Treaty, which is designed to protect international waters. With oceans absorbing 30 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, the French leader celebrated the incoming High Seas Treaty, which received sufficient pledges of support from countries attending the summit. The treaty can be implemented if at least 60 countries have adopted it.
  • Fast fashion: The French Senate had earlier in June adopted an amended version of its “fast fashion” bill presented last year, which aims to curb the influx of environmentally unfriendly, ultra-cheap clothing brands that are flooding the market, many of them from China. According to state environment agency, 35 items of clothing are discarded every second in France and, ultimately, they end up decomposing in landfills, which generates greenhouse gas emissions and releases harmful chemicals that can contaminate soil and water. Their production and transport require large volumes of energy, which often raises the level of emissions. The amended bill has drawn criticism from all sides. While senators from the right-wing Republican party want to specifically target the Chinese fast fashion giants despite warnings that this would derail billions of euros in trade with the Asian country, ecologists have claimed that the amended version of the bill is weaker than the original.

Juliette’s picks – highlights from upcoming events and top reads

  • For RFI, journalist Alison Hird takes a look at France’s first “positive energy neighbourhood”. Fontaine d’Ouche, a social housing district in Dijon, now produces more energy than it consumes thanks to solar panels, smart technologies and deep renovations. As the head of Dijon Métropole and the city’s former mayor, François Rebsamen, explains: “We’re proving that a human-scale city can be at the forefront of ecological innovation.”
  • Since his return to the White House, Donald Trump has been on a crusade to strip researchers of all support. Is there a risk of contagion on our side of the Atlantic? French historian and author Aurélie Luneau speaks with climate experts on how to face the difficult geopolitical and economic context and cope with climate scepticism, Trumpism and science denial.
  • Beyond France, one of the latest research papers by Nature is worth a read. While many of us may regularly use the term “climate injustice”, we now have figures to understand how consumption and investments contribute to worsening the climate crisis. According to the study, which Le Monde journalist Audrey Garric summarises, the world’s wealthiest 10 percent are responsible for two thirds of global warming, reinforcing evidence that wealth disparities and climate impacts are closely linked.
All texts created by the Clean Energy Wire are available under a “Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0)” . They can be copied, shared and made publicly accessible by users so long as they give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.
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