Emmanuel Macron today presented the main axes of his “design” for a “French-style ecology”, “dominant” and “competitive”, as he declared.

The French president has promised that his government will “regain control” of electricity prices by the end of the year. Without specifying what measures he would take, Macron said the country’s state-owned electricity utility EDF and nuclear power plants would help to achieve this.

The French president made some new announcements, such as a direct fund of 700 million euros from the state for the construction of 13 metropolitan interregional projects, i.e. more than the ten projects originally foreseen. But he clarified that these projects will cost a total of 10 billion euros. Above all, he referred to a very politically sensitive issue at this time, after the summer holidays, when schools start, and marked by rising inflation and falling purchasing power: the price of electricity.

“There is one point that is key to our competitiveness and we will announce it in October, and that is to take back control of electricity prices,” he underlined, announcing a multi-year environmental program.

“We will be able to announce in October electricity prices that will be in line with our competitiveness,” he said, adding that this would apply to both households and businesses.

“By the end of the year we will regain control of the price of electricity at the French and European level,” he said, facing opposition parties who accuse him of letting electricity tariffs soar.

An Elysée official said this could be achieved through France’s energy law, to counter the fact that gas prices have inflated electricity prices in Europe, particularly in France, amid the war in Ukraine. This can be done without waiting for a reform at the European Union level to be completed, he said.

In a country that relies heavily on nuclear power to curb its emissions, measures in its multi-year green transition plan such as the end of coal-fired power stations in 2027 are encouraging the French to ditch heat engines for electric cars and promote heat pumps to heat their homes.

To achieve France’s targets of a 55% reduction by 2030 compared to 1990, we need to “go twice as fast”, Macron said, as the reduction of polluting emissions during his first five-year term was helped by economic slowdown caused by Covid. “We must manage to do more in seven years than we have done in the last 33 years,” according to a statement from Eliseus.

The government had already announced that an additional 7 billion euros would be allocated in the draft 2024 budget for environmentally friendly investments, to be financed by removing some of the tax breaks that some industries receive in relation to the use of fossil fuels.

Macron said on Sunday that the government would ask the fuel industry to sell at cost and give 100 euros in aid to the poorest workers who drive to work to limit the impact of inflation on households.