© Ministry of Ecological Transition
– Agnès Pannier-Runacher, new Minister of Ecological Transition, this Monday, September 23.
With a vermilion jacket amidst dark suits, Agnès Pannier-Runacher tried to make her mark as soon as she entered the scene at the Ministry of Ecological Transition, Energy, Climate and Risk Prevention on Monday, September 23. While she had distanced herself from Macronism since its dissolution and wanted to be the embodiment of the left wing of the Renaissance party, her participation in the Barnier government is somewhat surprising.
Anticipating accusations of opportunism, she argued for the urgency of the situation and the need to act. Her mantra? Make ecology desirable for all French people.
“I want a popular ecology where everyone finds what they need and what they are interested in. We must not let people believe that this is a subject for the rich.she announced, succeeding Christophe Béchu.”
An update on its hot issues, as well as its strengths and weaknesses in carrying them out.
His hot files
- Agnès Pannier-Runacher will have to defend texts that have been stuck for months, such as the multi-year energy programming which must specify France’s major choices, energy by energy. Fearing the blockage of parliamentarians divided on the share to be granted to nuclear or renewable energies, the previous Minister of Energy Roland Lescure had abandoned the idea of a law and opted for a decree. We are still waiting for it.
- Another key document, the national low carbon strategy, which sets out the roadmap sector by sector to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The text is generally ready but still requires some arbitration.
- More consensual, the national climate change adaptation planput together before his departure by the outgoing Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu, should be unveiled quickly. It aims to put the country in working order to face an increase in temperatures of 4 degrees on average by the end of the century. But the measures risk being devoid of resources because the time has come for budget cuts.
- Which brings us to the biggest challenge facing the minister: the plane strokes recommended by the Attal government before leaving. Will the minister be able to contain them or will she be forced to take responsibility for them? Green Fundintended to accelerate the ecological transition in the territories, would see 1.5 billion euros cut, which is already causing local elected officials to scream. The Ecological Transition Agency (Ademe) would see the amounts of its Heat fund and his Circular Economy Fund. Bloodletting would target the protection of the biodiversity, Maprimerenov’ et the electrification of the vehicle fleet. Even if some of these files will now be handled outside the Ministry of Ecological Transition, the latter risks paying the price. Because if these credit losses are confirmed, France will have the greatest difficulty in maintaining its decarbonization trajectory.
His weaknesses
- The Roquelaure hotel is losing perimeter and levers of climate action. Transports, yet under the supervision of the Ecological Transition since 2007, as well as the Mer and the Fishing are redistributed to the new Ministry of Territorial Partnership and Decentralization directed by Catherine Vautrin. As for the accommodationit becomes a full ministry entrusted to Valérie Létard.
- For once, Agnès Pannier-Runacher will be a Minister of Ecology without a Secretary of State. The Secretary of State biodiversity has actually just been removed by Michel Barnier, joining the late secretariat of thecircular economy disappeared in 2020. A bad signal for environmental protection associations.
- The minister is dragging a skeleton in the closet, revealed two years ago by the media outlet Disclose. Her father Jean-Michel Runacher, a former executive of the oil producing company Perencois a shareholder in a company whose funds are linked to the interests of the oil company and partly domiciled in tax havens. Own minor children of the minister are shareholders. There was nothing illegal about this but it threw his impartiality while its mission is to free France from fossil fuels.
Ses points forts
- She recovers the perimeter of Energy snatched last January by Bruno Le Maire at Bercy. Having herself served as Minister of Energy Transition before leaving at the beginning of the year for Agriculture, she is fully aware of the challenges facing her Minister Delegate Olga Givernet. Agnès Pannier-Runacher has already set her as a priority reduce the energy bill French people. Which promises some great clashes with the energy companies.
- It is a small victory that has gone unnoticed: the minister “will carry the voice of France in the COPs”as she stated during the handover. In short, she will once again supervise international climate negotiationsentrusted to the Quai d’Orsay last January. She will be operating on familiar ground, having orchestrated the COPs in Sharm el-Sheikh and Dubai in 2022 and 2023.
- Profiles are often contrasted techno and the policies. The very dynamic and pugnacious Agnès Pannier-Runacher ticks both boxes. This senior civil servant who has studied at HEC, Science-Po and ENA has a reputation for working hard and mastering her files like the back of her hand. But it is more recently that she has revealed herself to be a fine strategist and that she has cracked the armor. During her time at Energy, between 2022 and 2024, she brought together a European coalition of pro-nuclear countries that allowed France to win community arbitrations. She also scored points at the national level, succeeding in getting the laws to accelerate renewable energies and nuclear power passed. Finally, she likes to take on challenges. The latest? Getting elected as a member of parliament for Pas-de-Calais against an RN candidate, when she had just been parachuted into this territory.
Agnès Pannier-Runacher’s task looks arduous with a government without an absolute majority and budgetary restrictions. We trust her to hang on, she who has been in all the successive Macronist governments since 2018, bouncing back each time we did not expect her.It’s up to me to convince parliamentarians to build project majorities.”she said on Monday, as if she were warding off bad luck.
