An Oxfam and Les Amis de la Terre report points the finger at Paris: “Hypocrites: they talk about the climate and pollute the planet by burning coal”
In a few months' time, France will host the Cop21 world climate conference, at which the entire world will be called upon to act to avert an impending catastrophe. And yet the very same country controls two energy giants – Edf and Gdf Suez (recently rebranded as Engie) – that own forty-six coal power plants across the world. Together, they emit 151 million tonnes of CO2 every year: roughly half the total pollution produced by the European country within its own borders.
The inconsistency between diplomatic gestures and practical actions has recently been called out by two French NGOs, Oxfam and Les Amis de la Terre, which have published a report – entitled "Emissioni di Stato" – drawn up in collaboration with the University of Oxford. In the text, the organisations explain that coal is the leading cause of climate change: "Although its combustion accounts for no more than 41 per cent of global energy production, it is responsible for 72 per cent of total emissions." Despite this, global demand for the fossil fuel grew by 3.4 per cent per year between 2007 and 2012, according to the International Energy Agency, and will continue to rise until 2018.
A market fed, therefore, by the two major French companies as well. For Edf, coal still accounts for 9.1 per cent of its global electricity production. The company owns five power plants in China and eleven in Europe: of the latter, two (located in the United Kingdom) are among the thirty most polluting on the continent, according to a study carried out by, among others, the Wwf and the European Environment Bureau. And while the group is closing some of its coal plants in France, it is simultaneously considering new investments in the sector in China and Eastern Europe.
Similarly, with thirty power plants spread across the world, Engie emits 81 million tonnes of CO2 every year, and has recently won a contract to build a new plant at Thabametsi, in South Africa. A project worth 1.5 billion euros, welcomed with satisfaction by President François Hollande himself. Behaviour that, according to the NGOs, exposes "the hypocrisy of France, which on the one hand multiplies its calls to action to combat climate change and, on the other, cheerfully pollutes abroad through its state-owned companies."