France Says “Non” to New Oil and Gas Drilling

Emmanuel Macron – C: www.elysee.fr

There is a growing feeling within European capitals that there is a quiet, but deeply positive, revolution happening under Emmanuel Macron in France.

Macron’s opinion poll rating is high, especially boosted in how the young French President has reacted to Donald Trump on the international stage.

On Friday, there was further evidence of Macron’s anti-Trump stance, when former Governor of California and star of the “Terminator” film, Arnold Schwarzenegger, posted a selfie video of himself with Macron, where they mocked Trump’s withdrawal of the US from the Paris Climate Accord.

The video shows Schwarzenegger saying the pair talked about “talking about environmental issues and a green future,” before Macron adds: “We will deliver together to make the planet great again.”

And in another sign that things are changing in Paris, the country’s France’s new celebrity “Ecological Transitions” Minister, Nicolas Hulot, has said the country will issue a moratorium on new oil and gas exploration licenses. “There will be no new exploration licences for hydrocarbons, we will pass the law this autumn,” Hulot told a French news channel.

A former TV host of nature documentaries, Hulot is a popular environmentalist, and his appointment was seen as a major “coup” by Macron’s new Administration.

As the France24 website notes this is about preventing future oil and gas development not curtailing current operations: “The measure would essentially kill development of shale oil and gas in mainland France and in the country’s overseas territories, but does nothing to curb ongoing exploration or extraction projects involving conventional oil and gas,” says the website.

Hulot said that the French government would be hit by costly legal action if it tried to stop current oil and gas operations, which cover about 4,000 square kilometres of the country.

This stance disappointed France’s environmental community who thought Hulot could have gone further. “There are at least 55 exploration licenses that were previously approved and will likely be extended, and 132 extraction permits awaiting approval,” said Juliette Renaud, a fossil fuel industry expert with Friends of the Earth.

Renaud added: “If we continue to exploit conventional hydrocarbons, it will be impossible to keep global temperatures from rising above 2°C.”

Whilst France’s announcement has to be welcomed as a first step though and hopefully it will encourage other countries to follow suit, it is not by any means a large oil and gas producer.

In February this year, production was 15,000 bpd, so the majority of its oil and gas which it consumes was imported.

But it is yet another sign that the days of unfettered fossil fuel extraction are over.