France’s Rassemblement National to Threaten Green Targets

France’s Rassemblement National party is threating France’s green ambitions if will get elected at the next French snap election.

• In reaction to the historic surge of the far-right party in the European elections, the French President called for snap elections on 30 June and 7 July.
• Marine Le Pen’s far-right nationalist party could threaten France’s road to net zero.
• “We want to stop punitive green policies,” Jean-Philippe Tanguy, who is in charge of the economic and energy platform at Rassemblement National, said.
• “We don’t want to abandon the plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, we want to achieve it with other means”, he added.
• The party is planning to halt the development of wind power, abandon a ban on the sale of gasoline and diesel cars eyed for 2035, loosen housing-renovation requirements and curb plans to exclude the most polluting vehicles from large cities.
• Instead, the party will focus on building new nuclear reactors and support the development of hydrogen, it said.
• “All businesses that are subsidized and have an impact on populations, like wind, will be in great danger,” said Nicolas Rochon, the CEO of fund manager RGreen Invest. “This will put a brake on the pace of new projects.”