France opens a "green era" of reindustrialization
On October 11, local time, the French Parliament passed the "Green Industry Act", hoping to use it as an important starting point to promote France's reindustrialization and enhance its competitiveness and independence in the "future economy". In the face of multiple uncertainties such as economic recovery in the post-pandemic era, spillover from the Ukraine crisis, and the adjustment of the transatlantic partnership, France launched its green development plan, not only to provide guidance for its own transformation and development with Europe, but also to demonstrate Europe's firm determination to seek independence and break manipulation.
The French Senate issued a communiqué stating that the bill aims to accelerate the establishment of industrial projects in France in line with the vision of ecological transition, and promote relevant financing through a series of measures, reform the environmental permit review and public consultation process, speed up administrative approvals, and establish special procedures to accelerate the implementation of priority projects. French Minister of Economy and Finance Le Maire has described the related ecological planning and fiscal bill as a "major political choice" made by France to promote decarbonization and ecological transformation, and stressed that this unprecedented bill will make France a leader in the future European green industry and an incubator for future green technologies.
The core goal of France's "Green Industry Act" involves industrial land, project financing, tax credits, administrative approvals and other links, and its core goal is to make France a strong competitor in the technologies required for the green economy by opening the "green era" of French reindustrialization, and at the same time accelerate the green transformation of the entire French industrial sector.
According to information released by the French government, the bill plans to reduce France's carbon emissions by about 41 million tons by 2030, and create 23 billion euros in investment and 40,000 jobs for related projects by 2030 by including relevant financing and tax credits in the 2024 fiscal bill.
The bill anchors two major goals of green development: first, accelerate the creation of new industries in the five key areas of heat pumps, wind power, solar panels, batteries and green hydrogen, provide convenient administrative support, and create an efficient market transformation path for new green economy formats; The second is to promote the green transformation of the traditional existing industrial chain, and achieve new standards and compliance with the greening and marketization of existing industries through transformation and upgrading.
The bill sets out a specific path forward around the main priorities: First, accelerate the implementation of projects. It is planned to invest 1 billion euros between 2023 and 2027 to create 50 industrial demonstration projects. By eliminating backward chains, upgrading traditional industries, and supporting emerging business formats, we will accelerate the process of reindustrialization under the new green standard, supplemented by measures such as shortening administrative approvals, initiating exception procedures, and ensuring waste recycling. The second is to create a benign business format. Make the environmental impact of the industry an important criterion for enterprises to obtain special transformation assistance, enhance the transparency of corporate decarbonization and ecological transformation by expanding enterprise participation, and use both rewards and punishments to urge enterprises to fulfill green commitments, so as to form a benign operation of the business format and lay the foundation for the final establishment of a green and sustainable fiscal budget. The third is to leverage public and private capital. Provide tax credits, additional subsidies, loan guarantees and other preferential measures accounting for 20% to 45% of the total investment for related projects in key areas, and grasp the precise delivery of public financial assistance; At the same time, we will actively mobilize private capital to tilt towards leading projects such as renewable energy and industrial decarbonization, create long-term investment expectations for the development of green industries, and fully mobilize private capital, intellectual knowledge and government plans to form efficient cooperation. The fourth is to strengthen training facilities. Strengthen the professional training support of green industry, train engineers and technicians with high-quality vocational skills in more fields, establish 100 vocational schools by 2027, and assist in strengthening the talent docking and cooperation between colleges and universities, so that the talent dividend can be released in the new format as soon as possible, laying a solid human foundation for green development.
In general, France's green development plan is in the same vein, from the "French Renewal" plan to the "France 2030" investment plan, all of which show France's decision-making orientation to actively seize the first-mover advantage of the green track. French President Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly stressed that the ecological transition is an important opportunity for France, and that the "French standard" should become a powerful tool for enterprises to strengthen their autonomy and competitiveness.
But some French economists are wary of the government's proposed measures. They believe that many of the measures in the bill are more to show that France's emission reduction targets have not been sacrificed on the altar of inflation, but in the face of problems such as volatile energy prices, high inflation, and fiscal imbalances under the Ukraine crisis, they should be gradually promoted from the field of people's livelihood; Relevant measures are more similar to "productivism" and "technological vision", lack sufficient social and enterprise argumentation, and cannot change the inertial logic of consumption patterns and production processes in a short period of time, which in turn makes relevant industrial transition measures face the risk of being difficult to implement in the short term. In addition, relevant measures still face a difficult balance between market-led efficiency and government intervention to ensure fairness, especially in investment and financing involving specific energy professional fields, facing a dilemma between corporate profitability and people's livelihood demands.
In any case, the introduction of the "Green Industry Act" officially sounded the clarion call for France to pursue green development, and it also sent a strong voice that France and even Europe should pursue an independent development path. As Macron laid out the principles of "sovereignty, science, competition and fairness" for France's ecological planning, putting "sovereignty" in the first place shows that France and Europe do not want to become manipulated vassals of the transatlantic partnership, and are not forced to act as "cash machines" for funds, companies, technology and talent under the US Inflation Reduction Act. In the face of the current changes in the world, France and Europe still have a long way to go on their own path, not only to plan with ambitious visions, but also to make the right choices in the major propositions of war and peace, closure and openness.
