The Energy Transition for Green Growth Act in France

France has an extensive portfolio of legislative and executive measures to tackle climate change. The Energy Transition for Green Growth Act (LTECV) established in 2015 is a recent French climate law, building on previous climate and energy legislation and establishing a comprehensive list of targets and measures extending beyond a pure climate framework legislation. It is a vast legal document incorporating not only matters relating to climate change mitigation, but detailing policy pathways towards low-carbon economic development.

The LTECV outlines numerous legally-binding quantified targets for the French economy. Additionally, it also includes detailed policy plans and proposals for how the emission reduction and energy targets are to be achieved. Given the short time-frame since adoption of the LTECV it is difficult to assess its impact on emission reductions so far. However, its implementation has been driven forward by a string of action plans and government decrees.

The potential transferability of this climate policy instrument to the German context seems complicated. The extensive scope of the LTECV together with very detailed provisions for implementation at different levels and with different time frames makes this a highly complex piece of legislation which does not appear recommendable for Germany. However, the formulation of the LTECV included a process of broad participation of stakeholders which could serve as a model for the formulation of the German Climate Protection Plan 2050.

The present study forms part of a series of publications within the project “Bridging European and Local Climate Action (BEACON)”. As part of this project scientific analyses were conducted on several national policy instruments that have successfully facilitated greenhouse gas emission reductions in European countries in the construction, transport, agriculture and small-industry sectors. The analyses focused particularly on the instruments’ effectiveness and their potential transferability to the German context.

Further publications in this series

• Denmark: Action Plans for the Aquatic Environment and Green Growth Agreement
• The Greenhouse Gas Action Plan for Agriculture in England
• Bio-Methane Support Policy in France
• The Energy Transition Tax Credit (CITE) in France
• The Agrocovenant in the Netherlands
• The Carbon Tax in Sweden
• The Slovak Sustainable Energy Financing Facility (SlovSEFF)
• Climate Change Agreements in the UK
• The Climate Change Act in the UK
  
   
• All publications from the BEACON project