Environment minister unveils five-year-plan to fulfil country’s commitments under Paris Agreement
Chloe Farand from the UK Independent
France plans to ban all petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040, the country’s new environment minister has announced.
Nicolas Hulot made the announcement as he unveiled a series of measures as part of newly elected President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to make the country carbon neutral by 2050.
Mr Hulot said he recognised the target would put pressure on France’s car manufacturers, but he said they currently had projects which “can fulfil that promise”.
As part of the plan, poorer households will receive a premium so they can swap their polluting vehicles for clean alternatives.
The announcement comes after Volvo said on Wednesday it planned to built only electric and hybrid vehicles from 2019.
Speaking at a press conference, Mr Hulot told reporters France would stop using coal to produce electricity by 2022 and that up to €4bn of investments will help to boost energy efficiency.
The announcements are part of a five-year-plan to encourage clean energy and fulfil the country’s commitments under the Paris Agreement.
Mr Hulot said the government wanted to maintain the country’s “leadership” in climate policy.
“We want to demonstrate that fighting against climate change can lead to an improvement of French people’s daily lives,” he said.
France is not the only country which aims to ban combustion-powered cars. The Netherlands and Norway previously said they wanted to get rid of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2025 and Germany and India announced similar plans ahead of 2030.
Hat Tip / Roger Sowell
It is interesting to hear they plan to ban ‘combustion powered’ vehicles. Did I get that correct? So…what happened to the hydrogen economy? Burning hydrogen involves combustion, at least it used to.
What about alcohol cells that generate electricity. They involve reacting it with oxygen, generating heat in the process.
Hydrogen fuel cells that took men to the moon – gonna be banned, I guess. Combustion involves combusting a fuel by oxidation in most practical circumstances. It doesn’t sound well thought through.
It is like banning ‘electricity’ and then wondering why your brain stopped working.
Now don’t go getting technical, you’ll just confuse the politicians. You don’t want to stop the progress towards Utopia, do you? 🙂
I agree. Don’t confuse the politicians.
We have nuclear powered submarines. France likes nuclear power as we all know. So, just get a nuclear powered car. Problem solved.
“alcohol cells”
is that a police station full of drunks ?
If the problem is urgent why wait until 2040? It’s no good banning petrol-driven cars if you still get the power for electricity from fossil fuels; so why did France just sign a $5 billion, 20-year-deal to buy natural gas from Iran? How many disgusting, dirty batteries will be required to power all the electric vehicles?
We don’t need batteries.
We already have nuclear submarines. France likes nuclear power.
So build nuclear powered cars. Simple. ///
Time to buy stock in Ford (F) and General Moters (GM). They pay decent dividends too!
Macron may be forced out before 2022, possibly 2019 as rolling black-outs roil the French populous and abandoned “electric” cars litters the streets of Paris and country roads reminiscent of horse manure everywhere during the Great Horse Manure Crisis 1894.
”abandoned “electric” cars litter the streets of Paris and country roads”
Look on the bright side – it could well be the answer to the migrant housing problem.
I say let France go for it, and let the rest of the world consider it a practical research project from whose outcome we might all learn a lot.
Bonne chance à toi.
Will they still have mopeds in France? It is impressive to see all of the two-cycle mopeds that are everywhere. Not to mention the outlaw looking gangs of leather clad young men zooming around on their stripped down mopeds with only one pedal. (So they can start the things going.) The mopeds have to contribute more to pollution than cars.
We should switch to electrical mopeds too, like the way they have done in most chinese cities.
See pictures from the streets in Guilin which I recorded last week, you hear no noise from the mopeds because they are all electric.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pInKD-5JF-4
/Jan
How much does the top speed drop when you turn on the headlight?
FNH nutter now with hands on the levers of power. Click whichever view you prefer …
http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=fr&to=en&a=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fondation-nicolas-hulot.org%2Fmagazine%2Fcomment-sortir-du-piege-diesel
“This situation is clearly the result of a political choice: the emergence of the diesel has been supported for many years by tax devices of importance (a tax advantage over gasoline, repayments of VAT etc.). ”
… in the never ending trail of green disasters led by EU dictat and dodgy science, much of it from Potsdam under the auspices of the political scientist in chief, Herr Flügelhorn. Who invented filthy diesel in the first place? Who didn’t see what was bound to happen if you concentrate the particulate and NOx emmissions in urban environments by running cars on the stuff? Shell and hubris? Bugger all to do with CO2 old son.
South Australia has volunteered to be the world’s Renewable Power crash test dummy.
France now volunteers to be the world’s Electric Vehicle crash test dummy.
Great. Somebody has to go first. Let France show the way.
Letting politicians makes these sort of decisions is, by any criterion, simply mad. Just mad. If you didn’t think Climate Change was a religion, this is all the proof you need to change your mind.
But, hey, they voted for it, so go for it.
Hey! Doesn’t France have something called Parliament? Don’t it have some sort of say in this matter? Or, does this guy rule by decree?
” Let France show the way. ” Now hold on … I thought California was going to show us the way?
This could end up being an old fashioned contest to see which one is first to completely destroys its own economy. Of course no matter which one “wins”, each will receive an attractive looking participation prize.
None of the state parliaments in EU have power.
The reason we have this idiot macron is because all our politicians are idiots. No matter who we elect they will be an idiot. Much like the EU.
Brits who want to stay in the eu completely puzzle me. There is not one politician in Europe with a grey cell between their ears.
Even leaving out the EU, the parliamentary electoral system all but ensures that even super-minority single-issue parties get a handful of seats, where they can exercise disproportionate influence. By offering their votes to the plurality party in exchange for getting their agendas pushed, ie. playing kingmaker (or in this case, governing majority-maker).
You’ve just nailed the core problem with Proportional Representation – the tail wags the dog.
Load gun. Point at head. Pull trigger.
Reminds me of this:
Load gun. Point at middle class taxpayer’s head. Pull trigger.
fify
Mod this is not nice…
The Euro has half-destroyed the once-thriving French car industry. Now, their government wants to finish the job. BTW, I did some consulting for Peugeot and Renault in their days of glory.
Why do they keep mentioning Volvo? Volvo is wholly owned by the Chinese now, and have been for some time, because they couldn’t out luxury the Germans.
If the Chinese really think they can build golf carts with a Volvo marque on the hood, let them try. But it cracks me up that the implication of the Volvo news is that somehow the Swedes have become electron masters and are going to lead the way in electrification.
No such thing has happened.
“[ … ] Volvo said on Wednesday it planned to built only electric and hybrid vehicles from 2019.”
Well, that’s no loss to the auto industry, the performance of a slug; they’re Chinese owned anyway!
An excellent reason to Brexit. Otherwise we will have an EU dictat on the same lines and all our politicians will go belly up.
Meanwhile: What do I do with all those duff rechargeable batteries I have sculling around in a drawer?
Politics is like a football: Balance on the top and all is well. Move either too far to the Right or the Left and you are in deep trouble.
You see, Trump was right. The world doesn’t need the U.S. to fight climate change. We can now use that saved money to ……….. (readers choice)
As a Pastafarian, I would suggest we reduce the cost of cable.
Trebla
Why not reduce the cost of pasta?
Auto
Hey France, good luck with the electric semi’s you’ll need waiting to take over at the border crossings for the imports, (that is until your credit runs out ) – https://www.wired.com/2017/06/elon-musk-tesla-semi-truck-battery/
Given that the average “big rig” tractor gets 4-5 mpg, that’s the equivalent of 4 Mwh of electricity to drive that 600 miles. France can build small arrays of solar panels for the recharging of the 12 ton battery…3,000 panels @ur momisugly 100 watts ought to do it. And to think that 1/2 the payload will now be required just to haul the battery; you’ve just DOUBLED THE NUMBER OF TRACTORS required to pull same amount of cargo as a diesel-powered tractor. Progress? I think not.
The diesel rig would probably last 20 to 30 years.
Those battery packs will have to be replaced at least twice during the same period.
So, France plans to ban all petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040… the best French minds also planned and built the Maginot Line… even seemed like a good idea at the time, but it didn’t provide the intended result. I suspect the ban of petrol & diesel vehicles will also not provide the intended result.
Add Napoleon’s disastrous foray into Russia to the growing list of bonnes idees.
Trebla
Did we not all get the 1812 Overture from that?
Auto
“ban all petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040”:
Some people are just plain stupid. These French people seem to be morons or just plane idiots…
plane idiot. Would that be this guy?
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=Z48GnB3K&id=36A1C0E4B03FD664AF65D184B1B0927AFE66853C&thid=OIP.Z48GnB3K9M2WzrpIgmrXWwEcEs&q=stupid+airplane+accidents&simid=608013099789453388&selectedIndex=0&ajaxhist=0
I was in discussion with someone once who was trying to convince me that an electrically powered airplane was possible, with turbines mounted on the wing.
Who is building electric delivery trucks? Or did they forget how most goods get to market?
Why can’t loony Leftists appreciate the lessons of history and realize governments SUCK at picking winners and losers…
Just let free markets decide on what, where and when new technologies make sense to adopt rather than making multi-trillion dollar mistakes and misallocations of land, labor and capital by letting pathetic and feckless political hacks pick and choose and subsidize technologies that most likely are not ready for prime-time…
Loony Leftists claim their decisions are based on “SCIENCE! (TM)” and “experts”, when in reality they’re based on the failed and immoral philosophies of coercion and the initiation of force against its citizens backed by a barrel of a gun…
Pathetic..
You seem to say that there’s no middle ground between the Free market and the Freedom of extreme exploitation of people & environment.
Shouldn’t there be a rule book and an umpire for a level playing field? Who should do that?
Isn’t the question in every situation about correcting the unintended consequences of every brilliant solution? The negotiations are mostly done behind the scenes by lobbyists for free marketeers and entrenched bureaucrats, all with hidden agendae.
If you want extreme exploitation of people and the environment, nobody does it better than the left.
99% of the time, government intervention makes any problem worse.
An umpire is supposed to be a disinterested party to dispassionately enforce the rule book.
Governments are far from dispassionate and VERY far from disinterested.
“An umpire is supposed to be a disinterested party to dispassionately enforce the rule book.
“Governments are far from dispassionate and VERY far from disinterested.”
Absolutely correct. But neither are corporations. Self-interest at work everywhere.
Again the question:
how to compromise between the self-interested lobbying of the Free market, and self-interested, empire-building Politicians & Bureaucrats?
It’s even worse when they gang up on us:
“Beware the Military-Industrial Complex.”
~Dwight Eisenhower, upon leaving office.
That must also include aircraft and shipping. I do not know of any aircraft that does not make use of fossil fuel so all air travel to, from, and over France will be haulted. Most shipping by sea also depends upon fossil fuels so the French will only allow sailing ships and row boats to enter and operate in their waters. It all sounds great but it will have no effect on climate.
It took 12 months for a solar powered plane to traverse the globe with 2 people in it.I wonder how many panels would be needed,for a plane carrying 500 people?
Simple, just scale up this old tried and true technology.
Think of the wide range of “fueling” options, from wind power to a ganged series of squirrel cages!
Never thought of Matrix as a documentary, but it’s starting to get close…
http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/duracell_matrix.jpg
The technology will make it possible to advance much further in the sobriety of thermal vehicles and the reduction of polluting emissions (CO2 is NOT a pollutant, so no matter the volume of CO2 emissions). It is not known what will be the performance of the thermal engines in 2040, and no one can prejudge. But Mr. Hulot does not care, he wants to remove the thermal, whatever the cost for our industry and for households, because green ideology takes precedence over reason …
So, to set a good example, Monsieur Hulot will now return to his house of Saint Lunaire in bullock carts. I’m all right, right?
We do not care: we will buy thermal cars abroad …
That’s a law i won’t be obeying.