PARIS (Dow Jones)–Top French CEOs including Total’s Christophe de Margerie and Veolia’s Henri Proglio are enthusing publicly about a government-backed quest for a new consensus on environmental policy.
But France’s green lobby appears less content.
Indeed, the so-called Grenelle de l’environnement looks more like an opportunity for big companies to vaunt their sustainable-development programs – oil group Total is sponsoring an airship to measure the thickness of the Arctic ice – than a pathway to a green overhaul of the French economy.
The name Grenelle harks back to social agreements forged to restore calm to France after the political crisis of May 1968. The broad, negotiated deal led to a higher minimum wage and shorter working hours.
One reason for doubting whether the green Grenelle, whose final roundtable takes place Wednesday and Thursday, will come to much is that its goals are sure to contradict recommendations from other policy groups commissioned by President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Rumblings from another Sarkozy-backed commission on “unleashing competitiveness” include a proposal to delete the constitution’s innovation-stifling requirement of proof that something will cause no harm before it can be approved.
France’s green lobby won’t like that, not least because it would open the door to genetically-modified crops – heavily restricted on precautionary grounds – despite the lack of evidence that they are dangerous.
Veolia’s Proglio waxes lyrical about a “dynamic reconciliation” between growth and ecology. But it seems to boil down to a call for measures like taxes to discourage landfills and subsidize the recycling of waste, a business Veolia just happens to be in.
Meanwhile, other fiscal initiatives such as higher taxes on driving and flying and compulsory green charges for goods with a high C02 “content” clearly clash with the government’s aim of boosting France’s competitiveness and purchasing-power.
In any case, high energy prices are more likely to trigger greater energy efficiency in France than the outcome of this tortuous process.
As the Grenelle moves from debate to decision, it may well fall victim to politics.
For one thing, the champion of the process is Ecology and Sustainable Development Minister Jean-Louis Borloo, nominally the second most important minister in Sarkozy’s government but no heavyweight.
Borloo got the job as a demotion after a brief spell as Finance Minister. He replaced former Premier Minister Alain Juppe for whom the post was cobbled together as the platform for a political comeback. Juppe quit after losing his parliamentary seat in the spring election.
For another, Sarkozy’s style of government is certainly not to delegate decisions. The Elysee has tended called the shots so far.
So the gimmicky Grenelle of 2007 is a long way from producing a consensus for anything but the most cosmetic of changes. That has prompted ecology activists to label it as no more than an opportunity for big business to privatize the green agenda.
(Adam Mitchell reports on the French energy sector for Dow Jones Newswires in Paris. He can be reached at +33 1 40171740 or by e-mail at adam.mitchell@dowjones.com)
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