France is going green and challenging the world, writes Tony Kinsella
President Nicolas Sarkozy, flanked by EU Commission president José Manuel Barroso and Nobel laureates Al Gore and Kenya's Wangari Maathai, threw the dirigiste weight of France's Jacobin state behind sustainable development at a glitzy launch in the Elysee last Thursday.
It was a milestone along a road set out by Nicolas Hulot, one of France's leading environment journalists. Earlier this year, Hulot was running at 12 per cent in the opinion polls, but chose to use his stature to present a pact which all of the main French presidential candidates signed.
The pact committed them to placing practical ecology at the core of government action.
Sarkozy redeemed his commitment by first appointing the active Jean Louis Borloo as government number two with a wide-ranging horizontal brief. The second step was the creation of a complex and inclusive national round-table system known as the Grenelle de l'environnement.
"Grenelle" is the address of the ministry where the social peace deal was hammered out after May 1968. The 2007 version brought together, over several months, groups not normally used to negotiating with each other; national, regional and local government, employers, trade union and farmers' representatives, scientific experts and environmental organisations such as Greenpeace and the WWF.
Where the participants could not reach agreement they set out their arguments and concerns, leaving the government to adjudicate.
Transport:France will not build any additional motorways or national roads, unless there is a specific road safety reason.
The high-speed TGV train system will be doubled with an additional 2000km to be built by 2020. Some 1,500km of urban light-rail systems will be built outside the Paris region. Two new dedicated "piggyback" rail freight axes (where trucks are transported on special wagons) will be built from northern France to the Spanish and Italian borders. New truck ferry services to Italy and Spain will be introduced. Trucks will be subject to an off-motorway tax per kilometre from 2010.
Energy:Nuclear investments are to be frozen and significant additional resources allocated to developing renewable energies with the aim of them providing 20 per cent of France's requirements by 2020. The potential role of biofuels is to be reviewed and incandescent light bulbs will be banned from 2010.
Agriculture:Farmers' representatives reluctantly accepted the goal of cutting pesticide use by 50 per cent over 10 years - on condition that alternative methods prove themselves. Organic agriculture is to grow to 6 per cent of output by 2012, and to 20 per cent by 2020. Public catering facilities will make 20 per cent of their purchases organic; school canteens will serve at least one organic meal a week.
Construction:Standards will be tightened with the aim for all new buildings generating more than they consume within 20 years.
Taxation:despite opposition from the MEDEF employers' federation, Sarkozy accepted the principle of a carbon tax on emissions, while guaranteeing that the overall tax burden would not rise. Tax focus will shift from employment to pollution. An eco-tax will be levied on pollutant cars, with the revenue generated being used to subsidise more environmentally-friendly models, and France will push for differential EU VAT rates on environmentally friendly goods.
Maathai declared herself to be "excited" while Gore argued: "If you want to move quickly you have to act alone, but if you want to advance on a broad front, you need to act collectively." The laureates called on other countries to follow the French example.
When both France's WWF and its employers' MEDEF expressed satisfaction with the outcome, Sarkozy cut the ground out from under the country's tiny Green Party, leaving the Socialist opposition sounding petty.
Government sources were eager to talk up last Thursday's announcements as a positive beginning, rather than a set of cut-and-dried conclusions. Critics were quick to draw attention to the number of proposals that would required further consideration, legislation, or even EU approval.
The shift of emphasis in Paris will boost EU actions on energy and climate change, just as London is hinting at reducing UK goals.
Should France convince its EU partners that differentiated VAT rates are both desirable and feasible, the impact would be global. Goods manufactured in countries that have ratified the Kyoto protocol (and its successor) could become up to 15 per cent cheaper than those manufactured elsewhere - such as in China.
As the planet's largest market, the 500 million EU consumers carry enormous commercial clout.
France has fallen behind on environmental questions, cushioned by 78 per cent of its electricity being nuclear generated.
Although the construction of the world's second EPR nuclear station at Flamanville will go ahead, all other nuclear investment is frozen. Paris is offering renewable sources and conservation measures 20 years to prove themselves.
Sarkozy offers a mixture of the old and the new, of respect for established traditions blended with occasionally dizzying adventurism.
If his France throws its weight behind sustainable development, the pace of global action could dramatically accelerate.