Government Official
Ségolène Royal
Minister of Environment or Minister of Energy, Ministre de l’Environnement, de l’Energie et de la Mer, chargée des Relations internationales sur le climat.
Ségolène Royal was the President of COP 21 in Paris during which the Paris Agreement was adopted. Her role is therefore very important as she supported the wide ratification of the Paris Agreement by other countries and its entry into force prior to the Marrakech Conference (COP 22). She is as well very involved at the national level to effectively implement the energy transition in France.
Contact : Cabinet de la ministre de l’Environnement, de l’Énergie et de la Mer, Address: Hôtel de Roquelaure, 246 boulevard Saint-Germain 75007 Paris, Telephone: +33 1 40 81 21 22
Climate Program Advocate
Morgane Créach
Directrice du Réseau Action Climat (RAC) France
Mrs Créach is leading the RAC since 2011. The RAC France is the French representative of the Cimate Action Network International (CAN-I), a global network gathering together more than 700 NGOs. The RAC France regroups 16 environmental NGOs including WWF and Greenpeace. One of the RAC missions is to propose coherent public policies at the national level to reduce French GHG emissions. Prior to the COP 21, Mrs Créach insisted on the fact that France is late on every single aspect of the energy transition. Prior to the COP21, the five keys NGOs of the RAC requested from the French government the adoption of 5 key measures including 100% renewable energies by 2050.
Contact: morgana@rac-f.org
Climate Program Opponent
Mrs Marion Maréchal
Deputy at the French Parliament (Assemblée Nationale), Front National (extreme right wing).
During the vote at the French Parliament to ratify the Paris Agreement on May 17, 2016, all political groups from the majority but also from the opposition voted in favor. Only Mrs Marion Maréchal-Le Pen (Front National) abstained from voting. The Front National is a growing force in France.
Mrs Marion Maréchal-Le Pen is currently the only representative of the Front National at the Parliament. She justified her abstention to vote for the ratification of the Paris Agreement as her party considers that the efforts to reduce GHG should focus on emerging countries and demographically growing countries like in Asia or Africa. They criticized that the demographic question is not taken into account at all in the Paris Agreement and that this is a crucial element to be considered in order to effectively fight climate change. They consider that this kind of agreement will lead to more constraints for the French industries and will contribute to the decrease of French competitiveness already suffering from the environmental dumping practiced by developing countries. This party is against the EU, globalisation, and this kind of multilateral environmental agreement. They believe that bilateral discussions and support should be preferred.