France's energy roadmap to be published by early April, according to Bercy

At the end of 2024, the government launched a consultation with stakeholders on the third PPE (multi-annual energy programming), which sets targets for energy production and consumption for the period 2025-2035 to put France on the path to carbon neutrality by 2050.

This roadmap "will be put out for final consultation in the coming days. The objectives, particularly for photovoltaics, will be adjusted to take into account feedback from previous consultations," indicated the office of the Minister for Energy Marc Ferracci.

"The PPE decree will be submitted to the Higher Energy Council during the month of March, and the PPE will be published at the end of March-beginning of April," according to the ministry.

According to this draft text, the share of fossil fuels (oil, gas, etc.) in its final consumption will fall to 42% in 2030 compared to 60% in 2022.

Since January, it has been the subject of several sceptical opinions. The High Council for Climate has warned of the inadequacies of the text, while the environmental authority has called for a more ambitious policy to achieve European objectives.

The EU27 adopted a climate battle plan in 2021, with a set of measures called "Fit for 55", in reference to the EU's objective of 55% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 55, broken down by sector, compared to 2030.

A target deemed "too ambitious" was the decision of the High Commissioner for Atomic Energy, in an unpublished opinion reported on Monday by the newspaper Les Echos.

In this opinion intended for the government, High Commissioner Vincent Berger also considers that "the proactive supply strategy poses a risk of overproduction [of electricity] if the export possibilities are not forthcoming".

Thus, for Vincent Berger, overcapacity would be "very penalizing for the consumer or for the taxpayer", which is why he advocates a "downward review" of "the growth of photovoltaics" in the PPE.

By 2035, RTE is counting on annual electricity consumption of between 580 and 640 TWh, with production of between 640 and 700 TWh, in the most favourable scenario.

With this in mind, Thomas Veyrenc, RTE's general director of economy, strategy and finance, highlighted on Tuesday on the social network Linkedin the "picrocholine" nature of the debates "on the exact percentage of nuclear and renewables" in the energy mix, in relation to the "essential issue of accelerating electrification to move away from fossil fuels".

"Everything that is produced on our territory with low carbon is good to take, and the main challenge is to put into practice the dynamic of substitution between electricity and fossils," he explains, recalling that fossil fuels still constitute the large majority of the energy consumed in the country.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.