80 parliamentarians call for a moratorium on renewable energy subsidies!

Being disconnected, ignoring the facts, and taking a stand—a winning trio to fuel the controversy surrounding renewable energy!

If you missed it, a few weeks ago, Le Point, in an article titled France's Energy Policy: A Break Is In Order!, relayed an edifying column, riddled with errors, misinformation, and shortcuts. 80 parliamentarians asked the government for a moratorium on the various forms of support for renewable energies, denouncing their cost and ineffectiveness.

At first, surprised, we questioned the justification for the statements made. That's when we were stunned by the level of ignorance and lack of mastery of these French elected officials and representatives. Although they contribute to the development of laws and the issues that can be linked to them, they assert irrational and ideological positions on this central theme of energy. We then decided to offer them free training and to re-establish some factual truths by showing them the usefulness and importance of the energy transition in French and European politics.

Let's re-establish the truth!

👉🏻 “The energy mix is ​​already 95% carbon-free! »

Confusing the energy mix with the electricity mix leads, as we see here, to a major "blunder". On the one hand, the energy mix refers to the distribution of all the different energy sources used to meet the needs of a given territory, whether in terms of electricity production, but also transport or the production of heat or cold. On the other hand, the electricity mix constitutes all the energy sources used in the production of electricity in a country. Confusing these two concepts is not worthy of elected officials who will have to contribute to the construction of our future energy framework.

🔢 The REAL key figures

In 2023, the French energy mix was composed of 38.6% nuclear power and 15.4% renewable energy (including hydropower). It is therefore decarbonized at 54%!

Data from France's Energy Report, 2024 Edition.

👉🏻 "Nuclear power, a controllable, carbon-free, and affordable energy source in the long term, the only guarantee of our energy sovereignty."

From 2005 to 2020, 75% of our uranium was imported from Niger (24,787 t/year exported worldwide), Kazakhstan (27,748 t/year exported worldwide), Uzbekistan (22,197 t/year exported worldwide), and Australia (25,804 t/year exported worldwide). We cannot therefore talk about sovereignty in terms of nuclear energy, nor even regarding the management of waste produced by this industry (mostly sent to Russia).

👉🏻 "Ten former prestigious leaders from our country's energy history [...] have called on the Prime Minister to alert him to the colossal economic, social, and environmental damage caused by the pursuit of a directionless energy policy, blinded by the massive use of renewable energies without taking into account their concrete impacts on our energy sovereignty."

When they talk about energy sovereignty, do they forget that to be independent, we must first free ourselves from imports of gas or oil, for example? Do they also forget that potential geopolitical fluctuations can increase the bill? To be very prosaic, it is important to know that the importation of hydrocarbons for our consumption represents a cost of 71 billion euros in 2023. How can we reduce this bill if not by electrifying uses and the massive deployment, among other things, of renewable energies? This is why planning and accelerating the pace of deployment of renewable energies is today one of the essential conditions for strengthening our country's security of supply and achieving our objective of carbon neutrality. Every additional kWh of renewable energy produced will replace kWh from oil and gas combustion in France or Europe, and will reduce our dependence on fossil fuel imports while limiting our exposure to price shocks on global markets.

🔢 The REAL key figures

In France, renewable energy generated €5.9 billion net in 2022-2023. And, undoubtedly, much more when we know that it helped finance part of the €30 billion tariff shield, in order to ease the energy bills of individuals through the capping of the inframarginal rent.

Data from Key energy figures, 2024 edition.