How Macron joined the climate bad guys club

After the pandemic, however, a different Macron emerged. In his second term he startled his EU allies in 2023 by calling for a “regulatory pause” on green lawmaking. Earlier this year he upped the ante by demanding a “massive regulatory break,” including the reversal of existing laws. On his kill list were the EU’s new green supply chain rules, which France had initially backed in 2022 then quietly tried to weaken last year. 

The French president’s defense of the Paris Agreement has also become more muted: He issued no criticism of Trump’s second withdrawal from the accord this year — in stark contrast to his forceful “make our planet great again” speech countering the U.S. president’s first exit attempt in 2017.

A key turning point, said Phuc-Vinh Nguyen, head of the Jacques Delors Institute’s energy center, was the far-right surge in last year’s European election, which prompted Macron to dissolve parliament and call a snap election. 

“Some leaders have decided to interpret the result of the European election as a repudiation of climate matters and say it’s a backlash,” Nguyen said. Macron, in particular, “started understanding that climate change … was not seen as a priority anymore.” 

Lowering the bar

While Macron’s focus was on postponing the bloc’s 2040 climate target, his efforts turned the EU’s 2035 goal mandated by the Paris Agreement into collateral damage. 

The accord’s signatories are required to submit new climate plans every five years, and the 2035 targets are due at the end of September. But without the overarching target for 2040 in place, the bloc has been unable to agree on the goal for 2035.