Green transition scaled back

The government has downwardly revised its short-term energy transition goals after realizing they would constrain growth too much.

The revised National Plan for Energy and Climate, which will be posted for public consultation this week, will cut spending for the 2025-2030 period from €270 billion to €94 billion. Spending from 2031-2050 is estimated at just over €332 billion. The initial spending target, included in the plan submitted to the European Commission in December 2023, was deemed too ambitious for the country's means.

More importantly, projections over the next 25 years showed that, because of the ambitious targets set in the original plan, the economy would grow at an average of 0.6% annually. This is because the energy transition affects a large number of policies and sectors: fiscal policy, transport, infrastructure, trade and industry, and education.

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