France’sgovernment on Thursday presented an energy plan to use less imported fossil fuels, including by ramping up nuclear-fuelled power production over the next decade.
France wants to phase out fossil fuels by 2050, and is hoping consumers will switch from burning oil and gas to consuming more low-carbon electricity in order to do so.
The plan for 2025 to 2035 foresees more use of the country’s 57 nuclear power plants and the construction of six new ones, as well as more energy from offshore wind farms.
But it aims to rely less on solar parks and land-based wind farms.
The move is a reversal from a plan for 2019 to 2024, which had called for shutting down several of France’s nuclear reactors.
Prime MinisterSebastien Lecornusaid the scheme was key to avoiding dependence on other countries for fossil fuels.
“There is no scenario in which we can be dependent,” he said on a visit to a hydroelectric dam in eastern France.
He said failing to move forward with the phaseout of fossil fuels “was becoming fundamentally dangerous for our sovereignty, for our ability to produce”.
Oil and gas still account for 60 percent of France’s energy consumption and cost France 64 billion euros ($75 billion) in imports in 2024.
They fuel global warming and keep France dependent on other countries, including Russia and the United States.
Source: Insider Paper
