Politics. Ecology must be “acceptable” by the French, says Macron before the Climate Convention

“The choices made for ecology must be acceptable to the French”, warned Emmanuel Macron on Monday, launching his meeting with the members of the Citizen’s Convention for the Climate (CCC), against a background of fears of a possible unraveling of their proposals to fight against global warming.

By introducing the debate, the Head of State also insisted on the need to take into account the economic and social impact of the Covid-19 pandemic to lead the ecological transition.

Third meeting

With this crisis, “we cannot act as if nothing had happened” since its first debate, last January, with the 150 citizens who must complete their mission at the beginning of 2021.

For this third meeting with the Head of State, 132 of them responded, including 74 at the headquarters of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (Cese), in Paris, where Emmanuel Macron was accompanied by seven ministers for a meeting scheduled for three hours.

The first member of the CCC to speak, Christine, a woman living in “a small village” in the Alps, raised the debate by calling on the president: “You have the opportunity to go down in history by making strong decisions. , dare, Mr. President! “. Because, she regretted, “we note that the measures which we propose are all diminished”.

“Without filter”

Emmanuel Macron pledged in June to resume “unfiltered” 146 of the 149 CCC proposals, aimed at reducing France’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% “in a spirit of social justice” .

But since then, the citizens drawn by lot and who have worked hard for nine months, have regretted the lack of “general ambition” for the climate and “clear support” from the executive for their proposals.

The Head of State justified himself by explaining that, for him, the “unfiltered” recovery could not be a “substitution” for the role of government and Parliament, “which has a mandate to represent the people”.