France will delay by 10 years the shutdown of part of its nuclear power industry in order to fulfil President Emmanuel Macron’s aim of making the country carbon-neutral by 2 0 5 0, the government said on Tuesday. Francois de Rugy, environment minister, presented an energy and climate bill to the cabinet that will enshrine the 2050 target in law, by proposing to cut greenhouse gas emissions to less than a sixth of their 1990 levels, compared to a quarter in the current legislation. “The current law foresees cutting the share of nuclear power [in electricity generation] to 50 percent by 2025, but this target would have required the building of new thermal power stations, which is in contradiction to our climate aims,” the government said in a statement. “So we now propose to move the date back to 2035, which means closing 14 reactors, of which between two and four will close by 2028 .”
France also plans to cut fossil fuel consumption by 40 percent between now and 2030, up from 30 percent under its existing targets, by shutting coal-fired power stations and converting boilers from fuel oil to gas. It also foresees using carbon sequestration as a way of reaching zero net emissions in the next 30 years. The overall French 2050 target is the same as that recommended by the UK’s Committee on Climate Change, which wants legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by that year.