Paris: President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday announced a plan worth 30 billion euros ($ 35 billion) to rebuild France based on innovative and environmentally friendly technology including electric cars, hydrogen fuel and efficient nuclear plants.
Six months before the presidential election and one month before the UN climate summit, Macron said France had taken the main decision “15-20 years later than some of our European neighbors” and now needed “to become a nation of innovation and research again”.
Expenditures are to overcome “a kind of growth deficit” for France caused by inadequate investment in the past, he told the audience of company leaders and students at the Ellysee Palace.
France, he said, needs to return to “a good cycle” consisting of “innovating, producing and exporting and in that way financing our social model” as part of the new “French 2030” plan.
During the next decade, France will aim to become a global leader in hydrogen green, which companies and governments that are increasingly putting in the center of efforts to rely on the economic sector that depends on their energy needs.
France will get two electrolysis-giga factories for hydrogen production, as part of eight billion euros investments in the energy sector.
He said that following the Covid-19 pandemic, “which puts us in advance with our vulnerability”, France must work towards French and European productive autonomy.
France also needs to invest in medical research, Macron said.
After the Global Covid-19 outbreak, French pharmaceutical giants cannot produce vaccines, unlike Biotech Bionontech and Modera startups.
The aim is now for France to develop “at least 20” biotech drugs against cancer, and against arising and chronic diseases, including those related to aging, Macron said.
“We need to focus all our efforts to this goal,” he said.
An official of the French president, who asked not to be named, said Macron had put a plan behind the Coronavirus crisis “which showed our vulnerability and our dependence on foreign countries in several main sectors but also the importance of innovation that could change all.” French officials believe that France needs to act quickly to close the gap and do not submit more land for the power that appears, especially China.
French car makers, which according to Macron have suffered “cruel” for the past 30 years, must direct their efforts to cleaner vehicles, with the target of placing two million electric or hybrid cars on the road.
France will also invest “massively” to get the first low carbon plane to the air with the help of European partners, he said.
Macron said France would also spend one billion euros in 2030 in “annoying innovation” to produce atomic power, especially by designing a compact nuclear reactor known as “small modular reactors” (SMR) with enhanced nuclear waste management.
Disruptive innovation is also needed in agriculture, where two billion euros will be intended for new technology, he said, especially in robotics.
France must start the “new revolution” in food production that must be “healthy, sustainable and can be traced”.
Agriculture will be cleaner, the phase exits “some pesticides”, enjoy greater productivity and develop “Bio Solutions” which will be “more resilient and more solid”, the President said.
Close to six billion euros is intended for the French electronics sector with the aim of doubling production and “safe” state supply needs for microchips.
Opposition figures quickly criticized macron for the announcement time, with Marine Le Pen, his distant challenger in the April 2022 presidential election, said he “made promises that had to be stored by his successor”.
Jean-Luc Malenchon’s left candidate called the “Macronian Propaganda” speech, while Greenpeace’s NGO accused Macron subscribing to the logic “always delayed a real transition and continued to produce as if the planet resources were infinite”.