On Tuesday, November 12, the Government presented an amendment that provides support of 1.55 billion euros for the decarbonization of the industry, within the framework of the parliamentary debate on a budget for 2025, although limited by the drift of public finances, he declared. the Ministry of Economy.
“The decarbonization of our industry is an essential part of our economic strategy. “It requires large-scale public and private investments.”explained Economy Minister Antoine Armand in a comment sent to Agence France-Presse (AFP). “This decision, which marks notable progress in the initial budget project, is fully in line with this strategy and will support key projects to produce in France while emitting less carbon”he added.
This amendment was presented in an identical manner by the vice president of the National Assembly and former Minister of Industry, Roland Lescure. The latter is the signatory, along with elected officials from all over, of a platform in the Grandstand Sunday which asked the Government to maintain public aid to companies for the decarbonization of the industry in the 2025 budget, forced by public accounts in the red.
“This aid must ensure the achievement of national and European objectives between now and 2030 in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions”states the amendment published on the National Assembly website. In addition to financing the construction of battery factories, electrolyzers, CO₂ capture networks or wind farms, “They will also ensure the long-term presence of industrial sites in sectors with high emissions, while being subject to strong international competition, being able to benefit from lower environmental, social and price costs. of carbon »underlines.
The Ministry of Economy indicated to AFP that the text will be examined by the Senate within the framework of the “expense section”, after the rejection, on Tuesday, by the National Assembly, with the votes of the government coalition and the RN, of the bill that the left helped to largely rewrite.
A question of “competitiveness” for the industry
As a result of conversations with industrial companies, “This important amendment is also a response to the discussions that Antoine Armand and Marc Ferracci [le ministre de l’industrie]I have had with […] the common base and in particular Together for the Republic »we clarified in Bercy. The government has intensified its gestures towards its fragile coalition in the Assembly.
At Bercy we also debated a question of “competitiveness” for the industry in “a difficult economic context for certain industrial sectors, in particular due to Chinese excess capacity in the market that is driving down prices”while large industrial sectors such as the automobile or chemical industry announce numerous job cuts.
The president of Michelin, Florent Menegaux, deplored last week the lack of competitiveness of the French and European industry, with higher wage and, above all, energy costs than elsewhere.
According to the Ministry of Economy, the announced allocation will support industrial decarbonization projects “still in the design phase”, “preserving activity” AND “developing a true clean technology sector” in France, where the executive has made reindustrialization one of its priorities.
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A census has already identified 81 large industrial decarbonization projects, according to Bercy, particularly in the fifty places that account for nearly 60% of the sector’s carbon emissions.
The government wants a budgetary effort of sixty billion euros next year, above all by reducing spending, “lines of reflection” Efforts are being made to identify savings measures in parallel.
At the end of 2022, Emmanuel Macron proposed a decarbonization pact to the fifty places that emit the most CO₂ in France, promising to double public aid to ten billion euros in exchange for doubling their efforts in this area.
The signatories of the platform asked the government to “keep your commitment”deploring that“Today only four billion have been programmed for decarbonization”.
In reaction to AFP, Roland Lescure greeted “commitment” of the government that “I heard the call launched with elected officials from all political sides and from all territories”.
At the end of 2023, the Ministry of Industry estimated that the decarbonization of French industry would generate “between 50 and 70 billion euros” additional investments and costs for companies in seven years. According to Bercy, Antoine Armand must travel on Thursday to Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône), where the second industrial area that emits the most CO₂ is located after Dunkirk.
